The Start….

Bugsy's MomLeave a comment

I decided to start this blog today after learning about a classmate of mine from grad school who recently died of cancer.  We were friends in a way that classmates can be, but never close to where we shared personal information.  She was always the private type – polite and friendly enough, but always had the arm’s length kind of personality at least to me.

I felt the need to start this blog because once upon a time in my life, at the age of 23, I also went through the “C” worded disease.  That was 22 years ago.  I am now 44 as of this writing and I finally realized as I was driving to work today that I can be a source of inspiration to others who are suffering right now.  I used to make excuses about getting my story out — I was too busy, I don’t know where to start, I don’t want to hurt my family, I don’t know how to do it, and on and on and on.  Today, I realized that it’s so easy!  I just start a blog and let it go wherever it wants to go!

So there.

Where should I start first?

I want to say that after all these years of living my life after the “C” event, that the three most important things I want my readers to learn is that with this disease:

  1. Attitude
  2. Attitude
  3. Attitude

is everything.  I can talk about all the things that went wrong, the things that should’ve happened but didn’t, and everything else I suffered through.  In the end, the one thing that stands out to me was my attitude.  My attitude of never giving up even when I thought that the worst thing that could ever happen happened, my attitude of being grateful for small favors, small feats; my attitude of “I can do it!” even in the midst of the worst stomach pains ever; and most of all, my attitude of never giving in to self-pity.  Of recognizing that I brought this upon myself and I will get myself out of it.  Of never succumbing to being a victim, but instead mentally brushing off the dust, getting up and being willing to be open to new ways of thinking about how to heal.

So you’re going to ask me, “How did you bring this on yourself?”,  And my answer is I will tell you more later if you check back every now and then for new posts.

Let me end this post with this quote that so inspired me 22 years ago:

“Attitude is a small thing that makes a BIG difference!” (author unknown).