At our monthly team meetings, one of our crew members discusses one of our five values: strength, courage, commitment, heart, and trail-blazing. This is Angie’s reflection from this month’s meeting.
Our team is courageous for getting up every day to work on creating change for a cause that isn’t always cute, polite, or the obvious choice. We find ourselves defending our loyalty and explaining why we’re drawn to work for an organization “changing the lives” of the young adult cancer community to people who don’t want to hear about anything that’s not rooted in medical research.
Our YACCers are courageous for stepping outside of their comfort zones (which are sometimes not as comfortable as they are just familiar); trusting us to connect them with strangers over four days of their time for Retreat Yourself and the Survivor Conference; sharing their stories despite the repercussions they may face when it comes to employment and non-cancer relationships, and staying in touch with a community that can cause heartbreak a little more regularly than most.
It takes courageous families to form memorial funds when their children die of cancer. While this helps establish their loved one’s legacy in the community, it also means they’ll have to keep sharing their personal stories of grief and joy with the outside world and dedicating time to helping other young adults affected by cancer learn to live and love life.
And finally (for today), since we are on the cusp of a new Shave season, it takes courage to Shave for the Brave—especially in a public setting. It isn’t always easy to ask for money, to organize an event, to sit in front of the entire school, and to sport a look that many are too shy to try out.
At YACC, we recognize it takes many forms of bravery for us to do what we do.
We are approaching our 16th birthday and our 1000th new connection. There’s a lot of work left to do, and we’re not afraid of diving in.
