Since I make a lot of connections between sports and life I came up with this one after something I saw this morning. I woke up to see the stunning ending of the World Cup game between Argentina and Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia pulled off one of the biggest upsets ever, beating heavily favored Argentina, led by one of the world’s best players ever Lionel Messi, 2-1.
What this game showed as do most sporting events is that anything can happen on any given day. On the postgame one of the commentators said this showed “nothing is guaranteed.” And they are right. And this is also true of life.
So instead of being so frustrated and mad about my job right now I need to take a look at where I am and be grateful of just how lucky I am. I still have a job that provides the medical benefits I need. I still work in Athletics which is a department I love. And most importantly I’m here and beat cancer.
There is no guarantees and that’s what is scariest. I’m scared as hell still of recurrence but I was scared as hell about chemo and the mastectomy and if I would be declared cancer free. We just don’t know. Nothing is given any given day.
I find this resonating even more following two high profile crimes at two different universities last week. Three members of UVA’s football team were gunned down when they returned from a class trip. Four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death in their sleep. These young people were so full of life and it’s so tragic and frightening. No one would ever expect these awful events. And that’s what makes life so bittersweet, the fluidity and unpredictably of it.
And that’s why it’s important to live in the moment. That’s why it’s important to focus on what matters and spend time with the ones you love because nothing is guaranteed.
I’ve beaten myself up for not returning to work sooner and even more so now after losing my position. But looking back I wasn’t ready any sooner than when I returned. I wasn’t ready physically or mentally. I had been through hell and took a lot of time but it’s what I needed to recover from 16 rounds of chemo, a double mastectomy, three surgeries in about 3 months due to reconstruction complications and the birth of a child in the middle of all of this.
I didn’t get much done at all other than try to heal and take care of myself which is exactly what I needed to do. And when I wasn’t doing that I was pushing myself to do things with my kids. They are only this young once and if I can take them to different activities I should before they are older and there’s not the chance to do things like this.
Nothing is guaranteed so go do something fun even if tired or if you feel guilty because nothing is guaranteed. That’s something sports shows so often. And that’s something Saudi Arabia showed us today.
#enjoythemoment #breastcancerbattle #pregnantwithcancer #chemo #doublemastectomy #focusonwhatmatters #onetoughmother
