This afternoon I spent sometime on the phone with a woman I have never met talking about breast cancer. I said the things that people said to me eighteen months ago. I thought they were crazy then, but I actually believe them now. There is life after cancer. It's going to get better, but not before it gets worse. Your hair will grow back. Everything you're feeling is perfectly normal, even if it doesn't feel that way. There will come a day when you think about something other than cancer.
I never thought I'd be somebody's cancer mentor. Don't get me wrong; I'm glad to be able to give back in some small way. But as much as I talk about cancer here, I have a hard time thinking of myself as a cancer survivor. It's hard for me to stand through the survivor ceremony at the Race for the Cure. It's hard for me to wear the pink shirt. In some ways, I still feel like that whole year of my life was a bad dream. It's hard to tell someone else it's going to be okay when I still don't always believe it myself.
I never thought I'd be somebody's cancer mentor. Don't get me wrong; I'm glad to be able to give back in some small way. But as much as I talk about cancer here, I have a hard time thinking of myself as a cancer survivor. It's hard for me to stand through the survivor ceremony at the Race for the Cure. It's hard for me to wear the pink shirt. In some ways, I still feel like that whole year of my life was a bad dream. It's hard to tell someone else it's going to be okay when I still don't always believe it myself.
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