Making A Stand

I love October for many reasons, as I have previously stated. It is a month jam-packed with many of the things I adore about this world, but one in particular has snuck up on me through the years. The overarching event that has taken over not only my life, but my entire family's, is that the 10th month of each year marks Breast Cancer Awareness month.

And trust me, if you belong to my family, you better be prepared to own a lot of pink.

It started off innocently enough. A bracelet worn until it faded white, a magnetic ribbon appeared on the side of the car, stolen and replaced too many times. But as the years progressed, the involvement grew much like the disease we fought to end. Agreeing to join a Relay for Life team, and later signing up for Susan G Komen Race for the Cure. Going to a camp each summer; taking an appointment on a board for your hometown cancer fundraiser. The involvement crept up on us; it seeped into our lives and took over. As bad as that sounds, I think I can speak for my entire family when I say that we wouldn't want it any other way.

Someone asked my mom recently if she ever thought she would own so much pink. Her answer? Of course not. I think the real question is, "Did we ever expect to own so many cancer related things in our lifetime?" Again, the answer is no. "Fight Cancer" memorabilia haunts each room in our house, the clothes in our closets, and the thoughts in our head each night before we go to sleep. I am forever marked with ink for my dedication to these causes, as are other members of my family. Most families go on vacations for fun, nope, not my family. We sign up for cancer fundraisers. But again, it is what we do, and we love every minute of it.

Lately, I've been thinking about why we are so involved with cancer awareness. Sure, my entire family has been plagued by cancer, breast cancer specifically. But honestly, sometimes it feels like we are throwing ourselves into battle for a war that we will not win. Cancer has been around for a very long time, and it will continue on long after we are gone. So why keep trying?

The answer is simple: we do it because of hope. We all know someone who has been afflicted with cancer, and we keep fighting for them because if we don't, that means we have given up on the hope that this horrible disease can be beat. No, cancer may never be gone, but it can be beat. But what I realized most of all through this musing is that we continue to fight these battles for the future of the most important people in our lives.

We fight for our children.

I will never know my maternal grandmother. I will never see her face in person; I'll never be able to hug her. I will never hear her laugh at a joke while she cooks a family dinner. I won't ever know what it is like to have a grandmother because breast cancer took that away from me. I realize that although I will never know her, she has impacted my life more than she probably ever thought she would. I may never have children, but if I do, I'll be damned if they miss out on a chance to know their grandmother because she wasn't aware. Sure, we all know who my mother is and the chance of her not being "cancer aware" is very slim, but this is more than that.

Other members of my family have been afflicted with cancer, and they have all beat it because they were determined to find it early. They believed in early detection, and that is the key. My family wears pink (and other cancer related colors), because it raises awareness. Call us crazy, but if our obsession with pink grabs the attention of one person, that is all that matters. We continue to saddle up and ride into battle not for fame and glory; we do it because we see a future while others dwell elsewhere in time. My family and I have hopes and dreams for this world that we may never see, but we will also never give up trying.

We imagine life without cancer.