A Year and a Lifetime

This topic yields what my creative writing professor used to term a high-level "threshold of difficulty". There is so much to be said, and so much to be done to give proper due to this topic that the task becomes a daunting one-I feel that I will never be able to communicate everything that I feel-and therefore it is easier to mull things around in my head than to actually share them.

However, this is a topic that I definitely need to share. So this is me telling you that one year ago today, I received the official diagnosis for Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph system, and the thought of it still makes me a bit weepy.

But it isn't so much the cancer part that gets the waterworks going, it's the amazing outreach that I felt from so many people who blessed my life in innumerable ways and helped me to where I am today. With so much help, cancer seemed more like a time for personal steeling and growth, rather than a time of tragedy and despair.

I now know that we never go through anything in life alone. And what we may think is "our" life is really a grand composite of the love, and relationships, and experiences that tie everyone together.

Thank you to so many of you who reached out to lift me up in time that, for many, spells the end of life or at least life as they know it. Today I am cancer-free, returning to my usually lively self, and above all, I'm a stronger, happier, Rachel.