Hi My Friends, hope you are having a great weekend. I’m relaxing, reflecting on the week just past and enjoying the reflection. As you know we are officially under way, and the new My Friends Email Group is growing nicely. Participation at the three high schools is growing much as I expected, with PWC leading the way, Booth and O’Donel following behind. This week and over the next couple I’ll focus my attention on increasing that participation within all three schools. I envision the new group growing much the same as the original group, but time will tell.
I have spent much of the day preparing to re-send the messages I originally wrote, and they are all ready to go. It has been quite an interesting task to re-read and adjust some of the content, as a big part of that was putting myself back to the place I was when I wrote the messages. And I was able to do that with great ease, certain messages in particular I can remember writing as if it were yesterday, while others are less prominent in my mind. But they all bring back great memories, whether they involve pain, frustration, joy, love, they are all great memories.
It is that concept of “bring back memories” that I want to discuss today. Over the past year or so, really as soon as I began to think about my life after treatment, sharing my experience has consumed me. Quite simply there is nothing I would rather be doing right now than sharing my experience and talking about the value and importance of a positive attitude with new and different audiences. Along the way I have had some great conversations with a variety of people regarding “living my Cancer”, and I have really incorporated them into my approach. I have planned, from the beginning to focus on sharing my experience with Cancer, and talking about Cancer for 4-5 years. I will of course, consistently re-evaluate my approach throughout that period, this period, but I’m still very comfortable with that time
frame.
A fairly recent conversation I had regarding “living my Cancer” left me with a very different view on this next 4-5 year period.
I have always felt that my experience was a positive experience. There are many apparent negatives, but even the times filled with pain and trial I can view as positives. I know that this perspective is not shared by all those who have experienced my Series with me, and I absolutely don’t expect anyone or everyone to understand my perspective. However, I would like it if no one judged that perspective.
As I look back over the past 24 months, which is something I have done a lot through preparations for the Challenge, I see a positive experience, that has affected many lives, most significantly mine, and it has done that in a positive way. I remember my first week in hospital, I said many things that strike me as amazing one of which was “that I wouldn’t trade places with anyone right now”. I would not have traded places with anyone, nor would I have changed the situation that I now faced. Prior to November 6th, I certainly wouldn’t have chosen to fight a battle with Cancer, but as soon as it was presented to me, I wouldn’t have chosen not to face it either.
That mindset contributed to my ability to view my experience as a positive one, and it is for that reason that I began to think differently about “living my Cancer”. Because I view it as a positive experience I have begun to think differently about living it. That certainly is not to say that I plan to live my Cancer experience forever, stop the learning and focus on the past 24 months. But to say that I’m going to close the book, wrap up that part of my life and move on is not accurate either. More to the point I view it as such a valuable experience, that still helps me learn, it will be a part of my life forever.
Preparing for the Challenge has continued to provide those learning opportunities for me, not just as I re-read my original messages, but also as I share them with other people, and hear their perspectives. That interaction and connection has always been an incredible part of my Series, and now I’m about to experience it with a whole new audience. Just being in the high schools last week and seeing the audience reaction, and then complementing that with smaller group and individual interaction was an amazing experience. I feel it has set up the next several months, how they will flow is the great unknown, but if last week is any indication the re-creation of my experience will be as incredible as my original experience. Different but incredible.
The first message goes tomorrow evening, as that day will mark the 2 year point of my Series. Wow, that’s pretty significant. I said last week at the launch presentations, a lot can change in an instant, tomorrow at about 5:30 p.m., at that instant 2 years ago, my life changed, and it has continued to change since that time. A trend that I plan on continuing.
A friend of mine said this line to me a while ago, and I thought it was a great analogy for life… “life is like driving a car, it’s important to look in the rear view mirror, and to know what’s behind you, but if you stare at it you’ll go off the road.” The Challenge will require and allow me to look in that rear view mirror, while driving down brand new roads, in new cities with a whole bunch of new passengers.
The drive has started, and I’ll keep you updated on the journey.
Live Life. Love Life.
Geoff
#4
