April | 2014 | Keeping A-Breast: Cancer Lessons

Cancer Lesson #48: It will take a year.

“It will take a year before you feel normal again,” my friend Marilyn told me. She’s gone through surgery and treatment twice, so she should know.

I’m banking on her wisdom because I have big plans for the future. Here are a few I wrote down while in treatment and my progress:

Learn to land our plane. – Uh, maybe this summer?
Ride GOBA (Great Ohio Bike Adventure) again, this time with my daughter. – Managed to convince Darling Daughter to do a ten-mile trip last fall, have been riding the Cuyahoga Valley Towpath in increments with The Engineer, and I’m doing another multi-day cycling trip with a friend this summer.
Take a beach vacation. Or maybe a cruise. Something that involves umbrella drinks and the ocean. – Off to England in a week, so maybe I’ll see the ocean. And yes, I realize a pint in a pub isn’t the same as an umbrella drink on the beach.
Visit Greece and Italy. I want to see David before I die (the Michelangelo one, not my husband, though naturally I want to see him too). – If you have kid in college, you’ll understand why this one is on hold. Still, she’s off to Berlin next year, so I’ll probably see Germany before I make it to Greece or Italy.
Get published so I can move forward with my writing career. — My “nice rejection” file has grown.

Jimmy Buffett says, “There’s still so much to be done,” and I plan on doing as much of it as possible. How about you? It shouldn’t take getting cancer to define your hopes and dreams. What would you like to do, see, or accomplish?