Living With Cancer by Tonya Hurley

Author:Tonya Hurley
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780786755929
Publisher: Argo-Navis

15

My Greatest Accomplishment

By: Chelsea De Jesus

My greatest accomplishment is not your typical thing to be proud of. So I would have to say my greatest accomplishment so far is making it through summer of ’09. Unlike many, my summer was less than a vacation. Around the time of my 8th - grade graduation, my family and I found out that my father was diagnosed with liver cancer. Immediately my father’s doctors ran dozens of tests to be sure the cancer hadn’t spread to his lymph nodes. In mid-July we got back the results; he tested positive. That was a day I’ll never forget. I don’t think I’ve ever cried so much in my fourteen years of life. From that point on, you could see the toll the cancer was taking on him: his weight dropped drastically, he couldn’t keep any food down because of the chemotherapy, and he was unable to go about his daily routine due to his fatigue and vertigo from all of the medication. For a while I just didn’t want to think about it, and when friends of the family asked about my dad, I would just lie and say he was fine. To keep the guilt from settling in, I practically isolated myself from him, because if I looked at him for too long I would feel a lump in my throat. Once reality really set in I was able to admit to myself and others that, yes, my father has cancer. Then I found myself angry and frustrated a large portion of the time. I lost my patience with people so quickly that I found myself hurting people who were only trying to support me. During that time I also began to pray a little bit more, but I guess I was bargaining more than praying. For example, “God, if you help my father I promise I’ll go to church more often.” When my bargaining failed, I just didn’t feel anything anymore, it was like I was simply numb. I didn’t care about my appearance, what impression I left, or how I treated others. Underneath it all, I was still sad and angry but I just didn’t show it. Then finally it clicked, in the midst of all my pain and suffering, I made other people miserable, too. At that moment I knew I needed to do some serious soul searching and on top of that an enormous amount of apologizing.

Once I finished with all of that, I began to realize that I had one of the most amazingly loving families a person could ever ask for. I would definitely say that I made it through this summer because of three specific reasons; my family, my friends, and my education. My family and friends gave me the love and support I needed, while my education gave me the drive to move on in life and to strive as far possible. If it weren’t for those three things I would not have been able to make it through my first week of school with a stable mind.

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