Open Myself Up

Am I ready to share who I am

with the school?

Am I prepared to face whatever embarrassments

it will bring?

Will I be able to handle the strange looks,

the ones showing me I'm different

and not just a face in the sea of students?

Will it help me at all

knowing I'm doing this all for a good cause?

A perfect person would answer

a yes to all of them immediately,

but I'm not flawless.

I'm scared about what others

will think.

I'm frightened to be picked out as someone

to be pitied and not

as someone normal.
Will I be called a freak?
I'm terrified about the fingers pointing
and the voices whispering,
about laughs shared behind my back.
I'm scared.
Plain and simple.

But what am I supposed to say?
Just,
"I had cancer,"
and that's it.
No.
I've got to be brave,
and change the world by
overcoming my petty fears
and raising the awareness
childhood cancer
needs.

In class, we're doing a "business venture" and I was placed in the Charity Awareness and Education committee (which is actually not much of a group, just me and someone else). As I realized one of the most effective way to get the message around is to go class-to-class, I saw that I would have to share who I am with the school to raise awareness for the thing I truly care about.

I had childhood cancer at the age of one; stage 4 (the highest stage), neuroblastoma, which is a type of nerve cancer. I'm healthy now, but I still have to go for annual check-ups and sometimes have my hearing and heart checked. The chemotherapy I had to go through caused me to partially lose my hair and damaged my body permanently.

Please check the website to the Canadian Cancer Foundation, also known as the Candlelighters Foundation. It would mean so much to me and childhood cancer survivors and sufferers.

http://www.candlelighters.ca/index.html