Why Am I Doing This?

When I first told a few people about my idea I got 2 reactions: 1) Are you crazy? and 2) Why are you going to do that?  I’m not going to answer the 1st question — I think it would be best to reserve judgement on that one until AFTER I travel over 33,000 in a month.  I can, however, easily answer the 2nd question!  I am doing this because I want to work to eliminate the connection that we all share because of cancer.  I want to get rid of those negative connections and replace them with positive ones; whether that be positive conversations, experiences, 2nd hand stories, or just positive thinking.

The whole reason behind the ‘why’ is that I lost my mom cancer while I was a 1st year at The University of Virginia.  While I was a senior in high school my mom was diagnosed with brain cancer, stage 4 glioblastoma multiforme to be more specific.  She fought it like only she could for 16 months before passing away during my 1st year of college.  She fought thru the surgery, the chemo, the radiation, and all of the physical and mental torments that go along with those treatments.  When it was her time to go home to God she was at peace and I was fortunate enough to be able to say goodbye.  She watches over me every day and there are times when I can feel her here with me.

I’ve always wanted to do more than give to the ACS every year or participating in Relay-4-Life (those are GREAT things to do and if you’ve never done either you should!).  Combine that with my increasing love and understanding of all things social media and JetBlue’s All You Can Jet Pass and I was struck with inspiration on Tuesday, August 17th and decided to make this happen.

I want to talk to people.  I want to hear their stories and I want to find out if they have a connection to cancer – statistics say that most the people that I talk with will share that connection with me.  I want to replace those negative connections with positive ones.  That’s where the fundraising part comes in – I want to be connected to as many people as possible, people I know, people I meet, people who just hear about me as the crazy guy traveling all over the country, I want those POSITIVE connections to be the focus.  NOT the negative connections that we share because of something as horrible as cancer. We CAN beat cancer, we CAN find better treatments and cures, we CAN and we MUST because we owe it to each other, to our friends, our families, and our loved ones.

If I can talk to 1000 people while on my trip, get them to visit this web site, and everyone can give $10 we just raised $10,000!  Imagine harnessing the power of social media – MILLIONS of people – all of whom could give just $1 dollar, and we could make an IMMEDIATE difference! So please subscribe to the blog (you can input your email address on the right hand side of this page – just be sure to check your email and click the confirmation link), tell everyone you know to subscribe to the blog, watch it evolve, participate in the conversation, give me suggestions on places to go, people to meet, and things to do and, if you’re able, please make a donation!

Thanks so much for your time and I hope that you enjoy my journey!

———————————————————————————-

Please enjoy the pictures that I’ve uploaded of my Mom.  Since she’s the inspiration behind all of this I figure you should know who she is!