14 Days

By Belle Harrison

When I was eleven years old, I was diagnosed with an extremely rare and aggressive form of sarcoma pressing up against my brain stem. While my friends were busy worrying about their impending periods and breast growth, I was worried about how I was going to spend my last days on this earth. At eleven years old, I had been given a death sentence, “Two weeks to live”, the doctors told my parents while I lay, sleeping in the hospital bed around the corner. Fourteen days is what my parents were told they had left with me. It was 2,557 days ago that I laid there in a hospital bed, paralyzed, unable to walk or swallow, with brain damage, nerve damage, and uncertain of my future or if I’ll ever be able to go to college. In 129 days, I will be walking across the stage at my high school to receive my diploma with honors and go on to pursue a nursing degree at the University of Arizona. There are days that I wish I could turn back time and choose a life without cancer but as I’ve grown older, I realize that there are days that I am thankful for what I’ve experienced, and for the perspective that it’s given me. Cancer has taught me that each day is a gift. Not that each day is spectacular but I am thankful for the simple things, like being able to lift my hand and brush the hair out of my face, to feel the cool tile beneath my feet in the morning, and the ability to walk outside and breathe the fresh air. The ability to smile at someone when you pass them on the street or when you experience a moment of joy. Having cancer has made me realize that tomorrow is not as concrete as we expect it to be so we have to change our mindset into thinking about what kind of impact we can make today. From working hard to achieve our goals, or trying our absolute best to be a beam of light in what can sometimes be a very dark world. Almost dying is what truly made me understand what it means to live.