a school assignment

The assignment was to write a narrative that either showed that you agreed or disagreed with the statement that humans had the ability to overcome the darkest of circumstance.  Here’s what I wrote while trying to hold back tears for much of it:

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Steinbeck Assignment

Diagnosis Defeated

If there is a modern day disease to leave its mark in some way, shape, or form in every human heart and family, that disease is cancer. A lot of people will hope and pray they can go their whole lives and escape it; I once though that. But it got into my heart too the moment my dad informed me my mom had been diagnosed with cancer.

Suddenly tests, sports, and girls didn’t matter so much. The thought of a world without your own mother takes over. The prognosis was good, but still it was scary, and it became real as it sunk in. My mother fought and defeated this disease. Each family member fought it in their own way, but she fought it for real. She fought and beat the real disease. I fought by dealing with it and that was hard enough. That was hard enough that writing these words now bring tears to my eyes. It was dark circumstance indeed, but anything can be overcome in life if fought hard enough.

I fought with late night conversations with people who became legitimate friends. I fought with positive hope that some of those friends could not believe I had inside me. I fought even after she had defeated it at Relay for Life by talking to more friends and by watching my mom take the survivor walk. I fought for other’s battles with every cent I raised. I fought by running the track while everyone else walked. I know I can overcome anything.

My mom fought with chemotherapy and medicines. She fought with a toughness I didn’t know she had honestly. She fought it maintaining an outlook that always remained positive no matter what. Her hair is different and still remains some of the effects of chemotherapy, but she defeated her dark circumstance. Her trophy is every day of her life. Every moment spent with her husband and two kids, every smile on her face and every laugh. Her trophy was her survivor walk. Her trophy is being able to say, “I survived cancer. I beat it.”

It would be hard to find someone who disagreed with the statement that a cancer diagnosis is one of the darkest circumstances we have. My mom beat it.