While driving today I was thinking back to the sick little girl I was for so many years. It is not only this time of year, September being Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, that the memories are fresh in my mind; I often reflect on my experiences and how I got to where I am today.
I was trying to remember when I began to separate myself from her, this sick little girl that I was, and tried to understand how I managed to cope. I was very ill, but so determined to be okay that I somehow lost myself in the child I was and became someone else. Yet, somehow I got through it all. Mentally, I also survived. Perhaps it was a mix of the support I received from my parents and my psychologist and even a little bit of my stubbornness that kept me afloat and on an even keel.
Wanting to be “normal” kept me going and still does. To this day I feel a strong urge to speak for sick children when I see them at my appearances, and to share the feelings and worries that I know they are experiencing but maybe cannot express. I feel I can since I was in their little shoes at one time. And I’m still here today. I survived, and I hope that I can share my message with others and show them that perhaps a brighter future does exist and they can and will get through this… somehow.
If you have not yet, please help spread awareness this month (and every month) about Childhood Cancer so we can keep up the fight and conquer this together.
