The Elephant in the Room is Cancer. Tea is the Relief Conversation Provides.

Survivorship

The stories and experiences are written by people after cancer treatments. These stories are written for those learning how to get back to work, college or just trying to be themselves again. Just getting past treatments isn’t enough, it is surviving and thriving that is key to being you again.

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The Hardest Part

by Janessa Ventura-Alvarenga August 9, 2023

I would often get the question: “What was the hardest part about having cancer?” And I never really knew how to answer that. Not because I didn’t have an answer in mind, but because I didn’t think it was the answer people were expecting of me.

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Isolated and Lonely, But Not Alone

by Kimberly Poole August 7, 2023

Being the extroverted introvert that I am when I was diagnosed with cancer April 2021, I didn’t realize exactly how isolating being diagnosed during a Worldwide Pandemic would be.

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We Understand Each Other

by Logan Steenbergen August 3, 2023

There are times in each of our lives that we feel isolated from the people around us. We feel left out, struggle making friends, finding our purpose, but that’s life, right?

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On an Island Far Away From Home

by Mandy Brixey July 31, 2023

I don’t think I can think of anything more isolating than having cancer and ongoing treatment in a foreign land away from home, friends, and family.

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Diagnosis

by Salma Siddiqui July 27, 2023

Everyone’s journey with cancer is different. And yet, everyone’s begins the same. One minute, you’re a person. The next, you’re a patient. A cancer patient. 

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Into the Woods

by Hailey Quackenbush July 26, 2023

Cancer is one of those things in life that everyone understands is a tragic occurrence, but no one *really* understands what it’s like unless they’ve been through it, or are close to someone who has—which is one of the reasons, of course, why it can feel especially isolating to be an AYA cancer patient.

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About the Journey

by Leticia Hernandez July 21, 2023

This haiku was inspired by Life of Pi, a book by Yann Martel, about a young boy lost at sea in a small boat with a tiger named Richard Parker. Despite many hardships and life threatening circumstances at sea, Pi’s perseverance and hope spur him on. 

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The Invisible Battle

by Stephanie Casas July 19, 2023

It all started when I was diagnosed with Graves disease and thyroid nodules in the summer of 2020. I was told I was a complex case but my endocrinologist never said the word cancer to me, so it never even crossed my mind. Being 33 years old and diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer is never something I could have imagined. 

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Dear Cancer, It’s Time to Break Up

by Chelsey Gomez July 12, 2023

Dear Cancer,

When you first entered my life, I greeted you with my fists up, ready to fight. You were scary… but I knew giving up was scarier. You never failed to remind me day after day that you were there. You whispered in my ear, “Time is running out. Just give up. You’re never getting out of here alive.”

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Dear Cancer, I Knew That Something Was Lurking

by Theresa Rees

Dear Cancer,

I’m not really sure how to address you. You’re kind of like that mean girl who bullies just because she can or the mysterious stranger in the corner of the room—the kind that people are interested in but don’t want anything to do with.

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