Emily is a 17 year old high school junior from Comstock Park, Michigan.  She tells her story in a paper submitted to her English Composition class.

Emily learned she was cancer free on March 6, 2017.

October 21st of every year will never be the same for as long as I live. It is the day I began my battle with cancer, and it is a day I will never forget. Cancer changes a person, not just physically, but mentally too. The physical change commonly comes from the treatment of chemotherapy. Chemo is typically given more than once a month, based on diagnosis and amount of cycles the patient needs. The National Cancer Institute says this about chemotherapy, “Chemotherapy (or “chemo,” as it is often called) is a method of cancer treatment that uses very strong drugs to eradicate, or kill, cancer cells”(“A Focus”).

It’s hard to understand what it is really like until you are experiencing it first hand. If you talked to any cancer patient in the world, regardless of the diagnosis and the treatment, I know they would tell someone all of the same information. In fact, my nurse Sharon at Helen Devos Children’s Hospital says, “I have not seen one patient walk out of this hospital the same person that they did when they walked in.”(Wilson). It changes people’s wonderings of life and makes them ask themselves  “what if?” more in one day than someone might their whole life. It changes schedules, and the routine someone thought they might have had, is gone. There are so many aspects in life that people look past and take for granted everyday, but not when you’ve had cancer.

The typical high school girl wakes up every morning wondering what she’d wear that day or if the boy at school would take even a quick look; with cancer it’s a completely different story. I don’t wake up everyday wondering what I’ll wear. I wake up wondering if I’ll even have the strength in my body to change my clothes that morning. And I don’t ever have to worry about the people at school or the public and if they’ll notice me because of course they will notice.

One cancer patient going through her second diagnosis of treatment says, “We should focus on life and love and beauty. Then something like cancer strikes. That car that’s been rolling along so smoothly comes to a bone-jolting halt. It’s almost like there is a target on my back or a big flashy looking sign saying “Hey over here! Look this girl has cancer.” At least that’s what it feels like. I can’t blame people for doing that though because I did the same thing before I knew It’d be me getting all the fingers pointed at.

“I don’t wake up everyday wondering what I’ll wear. I wake up wondering if I’ll even have the strength in my body to change my clothes that morning.”

It isn’t all just the physical change. It is the mental change as well, the change of my day to day mindset. I recently read an article about a nurse consultant who has devoted her life to conduct an analysis method on the actuality of survivorship of cancer, she said, “A common trait linked to surviving cancer was uncertainty, where the toll of the physical and psychological effects and fear of relapse and recurrence was exacted over time”(Smyth). I have come to notice a pattern with this. First, the patient starts out so strong and so compassionate about wanting to beat the cancer, and everything’s going great. But then, they have that one day, it feels like the worst day of their lives, maybe even the last, and they want to quit. They want to give up, and make a wish that this would be happening to someone else, they don’t want it to be them anymore. It all becomes too much. Cancer patients have several of those days before they realize that this is all reality and until they toughen up to beat it, they’ll feel that way forever. So, something inside changes. The spark is reignited inside of them and this cancer has nothing on them. They have become so ready to take on the world. They start feeling great and so accomplished. And they have come to promise themselves, until the day the doctor says to them “You are cancer free.” that they will fight harder than they have ever fought before. That moment is one everyone looks forward to everyday.

 Cancer teaches people a lesson as well. It teaches them to always show compassion, and to know that everyone is fighting a battle. It may not be as tough as yours, but it might be the toughest battle they’ve had to fight. All the little aspects in life people may have taken for granted are now lessons that they cherish everyday. People now make it a point to tell the people that they are close, that they love them. And they sure as heck decide to start living life to the fullest that they possibly can. It almost sets a goal for people. I know it has for me. My goal is to live life with zero regrets, I want to live everyday like it might as well be my last.

Cancer isn’t all about the treatment and the cure that everyone is hoping for, it is about all of the other little battles, within the war. I will always remember my time as a cancer patient, and I will never forget the affect it had on my life. I hope for your sake that it doesn’t take being diagnosed with cancer, for you to understand the changes it brings upon some people. When you see someone who has cancer, don’t look at them with pity, look at them with inspiration. Take into consideration how much they are going through, acknowledge them, and then send them a little praise, because the things they face are a lot more difficult than the everyday, ordinary person.