So, one of my hometown friends told me that I should friend Ethan Zohn on Facebook. He is the Survivor winner whom I went to high school with and who now has lymphoma. She is FB friends with him and said he has some motivational cancer stuff to say on his page. Perhaps, dare I say, more motivational than this blog, for instance?
So, I sent him a brief note and basically the gist of it was, "We graduated together and I have cancer too." I didn't hear back for a few days. I was ready to write him off and then he accepted my invite and sent me a very nice note. The nice thing about it was that it was not at all generic or "why are you contacting me?". Quite the contrary. It was friendly, familiar, and encouraging.
Two things:
One, I know it's been almost 20 years now (Dear God) since high school, but I'm still SO glad it's over. A big part of the problem was me. I was so ridiculously shy and insecure and generally not evolved. But the problem of the rigid high school social structure also completely fueled that particular personality. So I just feel grateful that when we become true adults, we can judge each other at face value and, for the most part, we get over judging people on things like: what they wear, who their friends are, how rich they are, what sports they play, and how sexually experienced they are to name but a few. I know that the Breakfast Club already explained all this to you, but boy was John Hughes ever right.
Two, Ethan has been through the ringer and still has to be in isolation for 30 days for a stem cell transplant, but he has an incredibly upbeat attitude. Maybe that's why he won a million dollars on Survivor. It made me feel a little guilty for having a less than stellar attitude at times. Ahem.
I'm just going to justify it to myself this way. Unlike Ethan, People Magazine doesn't care what I have to say about cancer. So for this blog, for myself and for you, I'm gonna continue keeping it real.
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