Cancer has made me mentally and spiritually stronger. But as my life starts to go back to normal, I find that some of my old, bad habits are still lurking in the shadows.
Interpretation
Cancer can strengthen a person, but old habits may resurface even when life returns to normal.
This quote reflects on the transformative experience of battling cancer, highlighting personal growth in mental and spiritual strength. However, the speaker acknowledges that despite overcoming great challenges, the past bad habits can still affect their life, illustrating the ongoing struggle between improvement and regression in personal behavior.
In practice
This quote can be shared in a support group for cancer survivors to illustrate the journey of healing.
After my diagnosis at age 22 with leukemia, the second piece of news I learned was that I would likely be infertile as a result of chemotherapy. It was a one-two punch that was my first indication that issues of cancer and sexual health are inextricably tied.
Just a few years ago, at the age of 22, I learned I had an aggressive form of leukemia. I needed intensive chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant to save my life. Back then, my doctors told me that I had a 35 percent chance of surviving my transplant.
When I was diagnosed with cancer at age 22, I learned just how much cancer affects families when it affects individuals.
I remember my first day of chemo as if it were yesterday, hanging up my favorite summer dress like an athlete retiring a jersey. Within a few weeks, my waist had shrunk to a double zero - the size it was when I was in the sixth grade. My cheek bones jutting out. Rings under my eyes. Skin the color of chalk.
In my darkest days in the oncology unit, I promised myself that if I ever got into remission one day, I would become a stronger, healthier and better version of my precancer self.
Today, my brother and I share almost identical DNA, the result of a successful bone marrow transplant I had last April using his healthy stem cells. But Adam and I couldn't be more different.
I thought my song was beginning that day, but it was almost done.
Regrets, I've had a few but then again too few to mention. And more, much more than this, I did it my way.
I was born in London in England in 1934. I went through, as a child, the horrors of World War II, through a time when food was rationed and we learned to be very careful, and we never had more to eat than what we needed to eat. There was no waste. Everything was used.
If it seems like I've been lost in 'lets remember', If it seems I'm gettin' older and missin' my younger days, well you shoulda known me much better, cause the past is something that never got in my way.
You got to take the crookeds with the straights. That's what Papa used to say.
Real value isn’t in what you own, drive, wear or live. The greater value is found in love and life, health and strength, friends and family!
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