Sometimes I deny that I have a disease/Happy Graduation!

Well look at that, it's only been six months since my last post. Sheesh. Sorry about that.

I was busy? Is that a good excuse? School really kept me busy this semester. Being a good student isn't as easy as I make it look. I finally graduated in May with a bachelor's degree in English Literature. Honor Society, departmental awards, all that jazz. The whole family made it down to celebrate and we had a good time with good food of course. Always with the food.

Part of receiving the departmental award for having the highest GPA involved meeting with my department head to give him a little background on me for the blurb that would be read at the awards ceremony. Various biographical questions were asked: where did you go to school before this (too numerous to mention, so let's just pick the one immediately preceding SJU), what honors or awards have you achieved (Honor Society at previous school, Merit Scholarship for current school, two other Honor Societies at current school), what are your favorite authors or literary interests (James Joyce, Marxist and structuralist theory), etc.

I called my mom to tell her about meeting with the department head and the things he was going to say. She said "and battling cancer and having surgery and flying back and forth to Switzerland?" I said "eff that." I'm not associating cancer with anything that has to do with getting my degree. My illness didn't hinder my progress, and it didn't help my progress. It was something that was going on concurrently, but to have it mentioned in a speech about my achievement takes any delight away from the achievement itself. It invokes or plays "the cancer card" and I didn't want people to think "ohhhhhhh, she had cancer while she was getting an award, how brave!" or worse yet "she probably just got the award because she had cancer."

I worked my ass for my GPA of 3.86. Worked. It. Off.

And of course, I mean no disrespect to my mother in rejecting her suggestion that I mention my disease as part of my bio. It is a part of me, it's not going anywhere. It's metastatic and not curable. And I know that to my family and friends, overcoming the obstacles on my way to the degree is inspiring(?) But I'm not willing to give carcinoid any credit here. I'm not sharing the spotlight with cancer. Eff that.