Making Lemonade
Today I am compassionate, independent, and driven. I identify as a teacher, a sister, a daughter, a friend, a coach, an advocate for students, and a life longer learner. I am only all of these things because of my childhood experiences and the support I received on not only the worst days, but also the best days.
My dad was diagnosed with cancer when I was in kindergarten. I remember the day very vividly; my grandma was in town for a visit and I woke up to go to school, but my parents were not home. My dad had experienced extreme pain in his arm and left in the middle of the night to go to the hospital. It was later that week that he was diagnosed with leukemia. Throughout the next two plus years of my life, I had a much different experience than many of my peers. My grandmother moved in with us; she was the one to send my two sisters and I off to school, help us with our homework, and make us dinner every night. My mom would arrive home after being at the hospital all day to tuck us into bed. After a valiant fight involving two relapses, numerous transplants, and many treatments with complications, my dad passed away.
From the outside looking in the terrain, peaks and valleys, of my journey are not visible. My classmates could not see that my uncles came to the daddy daughter dance in elementary school and cannot see that I think about who will walk me down the aisle on my wedding day almost every day. While it would be easy to dwell on the hard days and how my life is different, that is not the story I want to tell.
Today, 14 years later, I look back on my life and look at my actions every day and see the strength that has come from losing my father. As an educator I show empathy and compassion to every one of my students. I aspire to understand each of my students as people with stories and lives beyond the four walls of my classroom. As a family, my bonds with my sisters, mother, and grandmother are stronger than anyone outside our family could imagine. I am fiercely independent which has allowed me to excel in my academics, persist towards my athletic goals as a high school and collegiate swimmer, and push myself to seek and pursue opportunities I never thought possible.
In the wise and honest words that my father left me in a note ten days before he passed “don’t duck the tough stuff.” With every challenge or set back a door is opened. I could not be the strong woman for myself, my family, and my friends without my journey.