Day 4 - The (official) Birthday Party

Saturday was a fun day. I woke up late, had a nice lunch with my parents and my sweetheart and then headed to a friend's house. A bunched of us played soccer all day... on Playstation! At night all my friends came over to my place for the real birthday party (the one after the first chemo session was just a warm-up). Since I live in an apartment building with my parents, we had the party downstairs, in a large room they have there. It was really nice, we hired a buffet, we had live music and a bunch of people showed up.

Among the guests, we had a bunch of my parents' friends, including my doctor (who actually removed my stitches from the biopsy at the party). We also had a bunch of friends from highschool that I hadn't seen in ages. Everyone knew of my condition beforehand, though... which brings me to the point of this post.

Let me just tell you something that happened last week, I think it's very appropriate. My mom has 6 siblings and she gets along with them all, except for one: the youngest sister, who ended up loosing touch with the entire family for reasons not worth mentioning. She hadn't spoken to my mom in years; I don't even know any of her kids, my cousins (the oldest one is 15). However, as soon as she found out about my disease, she called my mom in tears. She also called everyone else in the family she had fought with, as an attempt to apologize and get back in touch.

My old friends didn't all show up for my birthday last year, but they did last week. My aunt hadn't spoken to most people on her family for ages, but she did last week. What was so special about last week? I believe my old friends and my aunt were terrified by the briefness of life and the possibility of my life being even briefer, in case I don't beat Cancer. That made them get back that urgency of living, of getting back in touch, of making up for the long family fight. And that is a beautiful side-effect of Cancer.

As a good friend of mine put on an email, "reminders of our own mortality can be good for life. It reminds us that no matter how long you last, life is brief". I hope that you don't need to go through a serious disease to feel that, I hope my story helps you feel that. Cancer has not only changed how I see life, but also, and much more importantly, how I will live my life from now on. And that I will never resent.

I will not bend and I will not break.