After arriving in LA on Saturday morning, I was picked up from LAX by 2 fraternity brothers of mine, Curt and Matt. Matt lives in LA and Curt came up from San Diego. We headed to Matt’s place and then started out on the LA tourist tour. I hadn’t seen Matt in years and had Curt not JUST been to Charlottesville last month it would have been years since I’d seen him as well, so we all had some catching up to do.
I obviously spent a lot of time talking about the 29 Days Until 29 journey and sharing with them the stories that I’d traded during the first few days of the journey. As we spent the afternoon traveling and I got to tell people about 29 Days Until 29, I heard the same thing over and over again… ‘of course I know someone who’s battled cancer.’ Didn’t matter the person’s sex, ethnicity, size, etc. EVERYONE is affected by cancer. Cancer doesn’t discriminate.
As night approached, we headed to the UVA/USC game. It was a great game, but UVA ended up falling just short. We tailgated with 2 fellow Wahoos in a tent full of USC folks, all of whom were very nice to us. They too had the same response, of course we know folks who have battled cancer. There were a ton of UVA folks at the game at well, including some friends that I hadn’t seen since I graduated, so it was great to see them.
One of those people was kind enough to share her connection with me: her dad has been battling cancer. The story was obviously more in-depth than that, but it was also a very personal conversation, so I won’t spill the details. What I will say is how that person expressed to me what seeing a family member go thru that teaches you: it’s the experiences, not the possessions. Take a moment to tell the people that you love that you love them. They, hopefully, already know it, but say it just to remind them. Life is too short, cancer can strike at any age, and you simply never know.
This person just recently finished her 1st marathon. She ran to support her dad and others like him. Training for the race was her ‘fight’ – we can ALL do something. We SHOULD all do something. We need to continue to come together as a team and we can raise awareness and work to stomp out cancer for good!