decades

If we are lucky in life, there will be love, and also, loss.

We cannot have one without the other.

In the year 2000, I fell in love. What made me love him? His brain. It would be 10 years later that his brain cancer would be a focus of our life together.

In the year 2010, I started a PhD. What did I plan to study? Using real world data to evaluate cancer outcomes. My first step was meeting with patients because I hadn’t had enough direct experience with the cancer patient. It would be 3 months later that the cancer patient was the love of my life.

In the year 2020, all of us entered the pandemic. What would we say and hear from each other? We were losing our minds. It would be in this year that he would lose all body control and much of his cognition. He would become completely isolated with cancer devouring his mind.

I hope you will never really know what losing your mind is like. And if you do, perhaps it will be comforting to learn how in your worst nightmare you may still thrive.

Throughout these decades, I turned to sport and in 2015, triathlon specifically. As I endured life, it fed my training. As I endured training, it bled into my life. I’ve emerged strong and I realized I’m helping others do the same. It’s a superpower and it’s attainable. Let’s go.