A Standing Ovation

I had never received a standing ovation, never thought I would and certainly never imagined it would have been for this circumstance.

In October 2009, I was diagnosed with cancer, Hodgkins lymphoma. I was 19 years old. My world cam crashing down. I seriously imagined myself waking up sweating, panting and thankful that this was a dream. I never woke up. It wasn't a dream.

About a month later I began the dreaded and scariest form of healing, chemotherapy. Taking a semester off from school never even crossed my mind. I just so desperately wanted to return to normalcy and dropping out of college was most definitely not normal for me. So I decided to stay in school and take a light load so that I can equally focus on academics as well as healing.

I have endured (only by the grace and strength of God) 4 months of chemo and still have 2 more months to go. But despite having no hair, odd body functions, and dark thoughts I still find myself waking up with a gigantic smile on my face. So many of my friends ask me why I don't complain much or how I can even smile and laugh when I am suffering so greatly. I always answer with one word: JESUS! He is purely the reason why I wake up, why I celebrate and find joy in the little pleasures of life, and why I love so greatly. I have grown, blossomed and matured in more ways than one through this season of my life, and I give him all the glory!

Well, back to my standing ovation. Last night the college's basketball teams held a special halftime presentation to raise breast cancer awareness. About a 1,000 college campuses are part of an organization called "The Pink Zone" which raises money and funds for cancer survivors or people currently battling cancer. My college, Westmont College, had placed an application for me to this organization and I was granted $1,000!!!!! THANK YOU GOD! The school wanted to present me the check during the half time presentation and after much prayer and heart pounding moments I agreed (which is completely out of character for me). My heart raced 5 minutes before halftime in the men's games then it began to violently pound when the buzzer went off signaling that halftime had begun. The woman's basketball coach introduced me to my peers, to parents, to faculty, and to the community then asked me to come on stage. I walked to the center court trying to keep my composure while most importantly trying not to cry. When I looked up I realized that the entire student section was standing, applauding, and cheering then I looked over to the parents/faculty side and saw all of them standing up and applauding. Well, how can one not cry?!?! I just wanted to go hug each and every person because I don't think they realized how much their support, encouragement and prayers meant to me! When friends, family or even complete strangers humbly approach me and say that they see me as their hero I just look them in the eye and tell them that it is people like them that get me through the lowest points of my treatment. There have been so many moments during this season where giving up would have been the easiest route, and honestly even the most appealing route, but every time I thought about traveling down that road the faces of love, encouragement, and friendship gave me strength to persevere.

So thank you God for your provisions, for the friends and family that you have given me for this specific time in my life, and for your joy that I get to borrow from you daily!