Have you ever thought about what happened prior to the moment you heard about this guy who had Leukemia and wanted you to join his email group? Ever thought about how my face, voice, or presentation arrived in front of you? I think about it a lot, and whether you have been with me from the first message in November 98, are a high school student who first saw me in your gym, or you are a Friend of mine who connected with me through the media or your family/friends circle, however you have happened to have me arrive in your inbox there was a process that lead up to that… that’s what I love to think about.
Tonight I’m going to tell you a little story… I’m not sure I’ve ever really done this in an email, not with this intent anyway, as I guess the reality is that I’m always telling you a story every time I write.
I’ll start at the beginning, cause that makes sense to me, and will say that the core of 25 who we started with a “long time ago, in a galaxy far far away”, they connected to me for a couple of key reasons. One was because I had made a commitment to myself that I would share my experiences with Cancer, share my lessons learned, my ups and downs, as I experienced them. Another was that you were one of the many who supported and connected with me prior to my Cancer diagnosis. You knew me at varying levels before I was handed a Cancer Challenge and from different areas of my life. Fortunately for me I’m the only one who can tell stories to this email group!! hehe. (Don’t worry Mom, it was always good clean fun, nothing to report here.)
Once I moved to the point where my health and strength were returning nicely, almost exactly a year after my first Transplant, in April 2000, I put serious effort into this idea I had for a charity. A major part of that
was getting myself into high schools. I had no idea how Challenging that would be, however I was very fortunate to have the immediate support of 3 Principals who have been constant supporters of my efforts from the very beginning. Prince of Wales Collegiate, O’Donel High, and Booth Memorial have been with me and committed to my vision before we had ever even officially launched the organization, which we did in June of 2000. Because of that support, I walked into those high schools, and many more since then, with a program that was brand new, an idea that to my knowledge had never been done before, and I stood before many of you in this group and told you some of my story, and invited you to join my email group.
Connecting with you, in the gym, in the halls, in the classrooms, in our inboxes, that has been the result of my idea, my dream, getting to the wonderful stage of reality, and then being supported by your Principals and Teachers. (The fact that you are reading this message should be another piece of proof that “if your heart is in your dream no request is too extreme”, gotta love that line, thanks KD)
The third group of “My Friends” in the group are those of you who have connected with me in the outside world, our great big world, it wasn’t from before I was diagnosed, or because I came to your school, you have found me through formal or informal communication about what I was facing and how I was dealing with it. And it is this group that has what I feel is the most interesting story attached.
The first time I was diagnosed I really wanted to share my experience, and there was no vehicle around so I decided to create a small one that would work for the ride, which was the email group that I ran from my computer. The second time out, this weekend last year, when I was given my second Challenge, the vehicle had now been created, RealTime Cancer. And I couldn’t see any other choice but to use that vehicle for the purpose it was designed… to share my story and communicate my Positive Attitude message. However the biggest Challenge I had was not in developing my strategy to share, or keeping my commitment along the road, it was communicating the details to all of you. How would I connect me to you?
That question is a little easier to answer, and the answers are Much easier to follow through on when some great, and influential, people buy into your dream, and support it beyond your imagination. We started with the creation of the advertising you all saw, and believe it or not that was set-up and secured within hours of me learning I had relapsed. The actual TV and radio spots were shot on a super hot Sunday afternoon hours before I entered hospital. I love to look back and remember that time, as it is such a thrill for me to know that some super people were so open to supporting my idea (ST1100), and really putting it on a level that still blows my mind.
Once the creation of the message was complete it was then farmed to media companies all over, and once again the dream was met with amazing support, TV, radio, newspapers, magazines. And through those mediums we were connected.
Pretty fun for me to look back at the behind the scenes view of how things have happened, and as you can tell by the length of this message, each part of this story has detail and experiences that I could talk about for a long time. However I will end with this one thought, and it is that no matter how you have connected with me, because you were in my circle before my first Challenge, you happened to attend a school I visited, or you caught my message in some form of media or word-of-mouth, you have connected with me, and stayed connected because you were open to the invitation. I was reading some old journal entries of mine this morning and I had written about foundation beliefs, pillars of life experiences, and one of my 4 was “openness”, to both send and receive. I believe an open mind, and heart, is one of the most exceptional characteristics we can possess.
You are with me because of yours, and I’m glad you were and are open to my sending.
Always…
Live Life. Love Life.
Geoff
