A word, a word that gets thrown around, 

something that you hear of but never affects you. 

Something abstract and unknowable.

Cancer,

It’s something that you hear of like a distant relative,

living in a far off place and never really connecting with you.

Why should it? 

You’re a teenager, you believe you’re invincible, untouchable.

The only problem you face is the next test or the next performance.

Never worrying about the pain in your leg as you walk down the hallway. 

Only the pain never goes away. 

The doctors put you through test after test. And that word, that unknowable, untouchable word comes back to you in a new light,

Cancer

You find yourself spiraling, 

your world suddenly so much different from before. 

The depression, the defeat, they seem so close to overwhelming you. 

 

And yet

As you get used to that pain and that ever present feeling of death.

A new word rises, a powerful word, a savior of words.

Strength…

So instead of giving in you find yourself clawing your way out, 

you fight out of the haze and the sadness. 

You may have treatments that leave your head swimming and your body weak,

but you are strong. 

You realize you have friends and family that along the way have supported you.

They’ve been here, cheering you on in this race against death.

No longer afraid, not ever alone. 

As senior year starts you fight and continue

because you have goals and dreams that cannot be stopped

You will not be forgotten. 

The darkness and the fog has lifted and you are free! 

Free to dream, free to pursue those dreams. 

You have changed, you are now a fighter, 

a surviver.

You will no longer sit passively in life as it passes you by, 

but live out everything because you know that 

life can end at any moment.

 

Strength, it is not always muscle,

but will. 

The will to dream, 

The will to fight, 

The will to live.