Foreword
You have your story. Your friends have their stories. Everyone has a story. This book is my story. It begins when my life changed from one which was close to perfect—a childhood and adolescence full of love and success—to that moment when perfection disappeared forever.

In 2002, I entered my last semester in college like many other graduating seniors: thinking about what I was going to do with my life, questioning where I was going to live, wondering if I would find someone to be with forever. It was a busy time of life and it was a confusing time of life. Would I go straight into teaching? If so, where? Austin? New Zealand? Colorado? If not, would I just travel to exotic places and work odd jobs for a couple of years? It was time to visit the real world and to find out what I wanted to be when I grew up. As it turns out, I didn’t need a passport or airline tickets or jobs to discover what I value above all else. And unlike many twenty-two-year-olds, it didn’t take me long to figure it out. I had to learn fast because cancer was my teacher.

Just as my mother was recovering from breast cancer, I—a college athlete and seemingly healthy woman with endless opportunities ahead—met my future in the form of an eighteen centimeter tumor which had wrapped itself around my windpipe and heart.

Shortly after my mom’s chemotherapy treatments began and about a week after the devastation of September 11, I picked up a journal given to me by Martha, a dear friend from grade school days. I hadn’t written in it since 1995, but it was there when I needed a release from my worries. When rough times got even rougher, I needed it even more. Once I filled it up, I started another. In fact, nine journals record my life from September 19, 2001 until today.

So come with me through the days of my graduate course in what the real world can be. My journal takes you there in the moment. Live with me as I come to terms with my mother’s illness and treatment, as I despair through months of misdiagnosis and worsening symptoms, as I face the accurate diagnosis of non-Hodgkins lymphoblastic lymphoma, the subsequent chemotherapy, the bone marrow transplant, and all the complications along the way. Read how I was buoyed in my dark times by people who loved me and those who helped me. Learn how I found the secrets to survive...