My daughter had her first college english assignment this past week. I am so proud of the young women she is becoming and I am amazed at how great she is at expressing her words. This paper brought happy tears to my eyes and I thought I should share this great piece of work with you all. Dancing in the Rain Kayla McFarland I believe that when it rains, it pours, but instead of dreading the rain you should learn to embrace it, or even dance in it. Why let on word control you and everyone around you? It’s just a silly word. Or so I thought. Six letters, to be exact, but has so much power behind those letters that it is able to destroy families, relationships and personalities, but only if we let it. I was told, at a young age, by my mom that it is how you approach a situation that truly defines who you are. I figured this was the metaphorical motherly advice we all get at some point in our lives. “Your mom has….C.A.N.C.E.R.” Imagine hearing those words two days before your high school graduation by some guy in a white lab coat. Shouldn’t I be the one in the gown, not him? The buzz about the future fills the halls and the anticipation of experiencing this monumental rite of passage to conclude the high school experience the next day, as I walked into my last day of senior year. Well, I suppose hearing “your mom has cancer,” is an experience, but not the experience I ever imagined. Cancer also seemed like it was a disease for old people in nursing homes, not my beautiful, smart, 42 year old mother. Instead of celebrating and imagining what my future would be like post high school, I spent my time wondering what the future would hold for my mom and our family. Chemo, radiation, hair loss, sleepless nights, weight loss, all of which consumed my thoughts. Yes, I cried. I got angry. I pinched myself to wake up from the nightmare. Cue the scary music with the thunder storms. But then I did something I didn’t think I could…. I put on my rain boots, and I accepted it. I chose to dance in the storm. I chose to fight along with my mom. We all did. Why would we let six letters determine and dictate who and what our future held? Five months later, I am still dancing in the rain, not because I am celebrating, but rather, because I know that this is my reality and I can’t control it. What I can control, is how I choose to approach this. While this pavement has been a slippery one to dance in, and often times it is raining too hard to see where I’m going, I’m still dancing. Six letters have the ability to destroy, but only if we allow them to. Six letters can also create mentality of life. I DANCED. I like those six letters much more and firmly believe it has allowed me to accept a storm that I am a part of.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 01:30:35 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015