Survivor Versus Graduate
We are known as "survivors" from the day we are diagnosed. During my illness, that word never seemed appropriate but I was never certain why. It was simply not a good "fit" for me. Much later, after I recovered, I looked up "survivor" in a dictionary and found the definition to be "a person, plant or animal that remains alive; a thing that continues to exist." And therein lies the answer to why the term never fit.
Yes, I remained alive and continued to exist, but cancer sent me on an accelerated learning program. Suddenly, I paid attention to science, a subject which I had ignored my whole life, and I learned to appreciate how much scientific discoveries affect our daily lives. For me, cancer stripped away the things that are not important, and left me learning how to cherish those that are, and in the process, I learned to be more compassionate, more understanding, more forgiving, more patient, more appreciative.
And so I did so much more than "survive" cancer. I think of myself as a "graduate," a word that suggests going on to bigger and better things.
As bad as cancer is, if we can view it as an opportunity to expand our knowledge and to deepen our wisdom, then we all can become "graduates," a word that seems far more appropriate, at least to me.
Betsy