So, I guess to start, I should say that no, cancer is nothing like Hazel and Augustus' relationship. Well, at least mine wasn't. I wasn't someone who met the love of my life in a support group for cancer but that might have something to do with the fact that I was only eight years old and didn't attend a support group.

To be brief with the background information, I was just eight years old when I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Hodgkin's Lymphoma is a more common type of cancer and you've probably heard it somewhere. Pretty much, if you had to get any type of cancer this would be the kind that you'd want to get because of the high survival rate. Hodgkin's Lymphoma is cancer of the lymph nodes in the lymphatic system. My cancer attacked the ones in my neck.

So, now that you now that—actually, I'm pretty sure all of you know someone who has had cancer or who currently does have cancer—you probably wonder what would compel me to want to enter the medical field. Most people who have gone through a medical history as large as mine would look at a hospital and know it is something that they never want to go back too. Me, on the other hand, look at the hospital as something that I will not be able to avoid. I feel like I have found exactly what I need to do with my life, my "calling," if you will.

While cancer was definitely a negative, I think of it also as a positive. I have many positive things come out of having cancer, especially at such a young ago. I bet you're reading this and wondering how the heck that's possible and what possibly could be positive that came from cancer but it was the thing that confirmed my belief that the medical field was for me. I wanted to be a lawyer before I got sick but laying in hospital bed after hospital bed had an effect on me that I could just not ignore.

I look at my experience as a way of knowing that helping people who can't help themselves is what I want to do. Because of this, I am looking to pursue a career in either Pediatric Oncology (helping kids that were just like me) or nurse anesthesiology. If I chose to do something with Pediatric Oncology it would be for the reason of wanting to help scared and confused kids and anxious and terrified parents and family members. There is nothing that could put me back on a path of confusion as fair as my future goes. This is the thing that I believe I will be best at not only because I study hard, but because of the personal connection I have tied to it.

I have learned to not take things for granted in my life. I am obviously on this Earth with a purpose of helping people. God decided to show me in a hard way what my life should look like and I now look at it in a positive perspective. Before, the only thing I could think of was "Why me?" and "What did I do to deserve this?" Now looking back I realize the blessing that came out of this and I was lucky enough to be on the path of bettering my life and my future patients' lives.