I remember when my parents sat me down together I knew something was wrong; one being my parents were divorced and here they are in front of me and my sister talking to us together, and secondly they never sat us down to tell us anything before. My dad told us that he had cancer. Yes! The big C word that some of us have a terrible fear of, but here I am to tell you how it changed me for the better.

At the age of 12 what kid is not just thinking about themselves? I know I was. When I found this out about my dad something clicked inside of me that I had never felt before; I was never much of a person to talk about what I was feeling emotionally. I know I was sad, upset, mad, and probably very angry.

Let me tell you a little bit of how the weekends I spent with my dad went. I like to refer to them as "chemo" weekends. I call them this because every weekend I was with my dad so was chemo. He still tells people to this day that I saw him at his worst. Chemo makes you very very sick, very tired, makes your hands and feet hurt, and everyday activities become extremely hard. Sharing my dad with cancer was not what I wanted, and I felt that it was very unfair to me. Never once did I even think to consider how my dad felt, I was such a selfish child! However in retrospect, from all of this I did learn some things.

1. Never take someone for granted.

I am lucky enough to still have my dad around after his battle with cancer. I know of many that have lost love ones to cancer, and I could never imagine what those people could have felt in that moment. I do remember a Valentine's Day banquet at church on one of the "chemo" weekends and mentioning it to my dad, but I know you feel very sick on chemo so I did not think we were going to go. We ended up going, to this day I still have no idea how he was feeling that night because he made it all about me. No matter how my dad was feeling he never seemed to show me, he always would do whatever he could to make me feel better.

2.Celebrate the little things.

Once cancer is involved the future is not promised. I go out of my way to celebrate the little things, like birthdays. Ask any of my friends, birthdays are such a big deal to me. I make the day all about them as it should be. If it is worth celebrating it should be celebrated; pulling a tooth, making an A, or even learning to tie your shoes.

3. Take chances.

If you get the chance to do something that you always wanted to do, do not think about it do it, You may never know the next time you have a chance to change your life or even the world. My best friend and I got the chance of a lifetime last summer to have a full summer to travel and do things that we never thought we could do, we took the chance and would never regret any of it.

Just remember most times you have been blessed with so much more than you expected. So give someone a hug, tell them you love them, celebrate the small things, go on an adventure, and thank those who have given up the most for you. And for those wondering my dad beat cancer and has been cancer free for a 10 years now.