In In Total Remission :: Cancer Health Medicine Essays

In Total Remission Valentine's Day will never be the same. Four years ago, Cupid's holiday coincided with my discovery of a tumor in my cheek. Later diagnosed as a rare sarcoma, this capricious cancer has provoked me to understand myself and my passions. While I have developed new life perspectives since vying with cancer, my metamorphosis was not induced by my illness, but through learning to confront myself. My renewed outlook manifests in my leadership with the American Red Cross where I serve as the Chairman of the National Advisory Council on Youth Involvement. Carrying my insight from cancer--that tomorrow is never guaranteed--I have re-focussed the Council's advocacy efforts on behalf of the 340,000 youth volunteers of the Red Cross. Rather than promoting youth as an investment for tomorrow, I have prioritized youth as the asset of today. With a more immediate message, our Council has bolstered corporate youth programs and youth funding. Through my service on the National Committee on Resolution s, I also integrate youth initiatives from the field level of the Red Cross into national policy. My approach to Red Cross service has also changed at the grassroots level. Shortly after my final chemotherapy treatment, I was dispatched to a residential fire in central Fort Worth. At the scene, I discovered a mother crouched at the curb silhouetted against her smoldering house. While listening to the mother, I learned that she lost her thirteen-year-old son in the blaze. Though I had rehabilitated disaster victims before my illness, this event carried a different significance. While I was learning to live anew, I comforted a mother coping with death. My conversation with the mother compelled me to re-confront my journey with cancer. By reflecting on my own anxieties, still real and familiar, I empathized with the mother on an equal plan rather than that of victim and volunteer. Through service, I now probe my own experiences to assist and empower others. I have confronted and challenged myself in other realms of my life. Last spring, in Harvard's Agassiz Theater, the lights were dim and the audience hushed as a cool cube of ice melted over my tongue. Through the crack in the curtain, I noticed my friends huddled in the rear of the theater. A moment later the music roared and I leaped on stage with my troupe. Dressed in our radiant costumes, we feverishly danced, skipped, and clicked our sticks in near perfect harmony.