Anyone who knows me will tell you that I have a hard time making friends.\u00a0 Painfully shy as a child, I have learned to put myself out there as an adult, but it still feels brutishly difficult.\u00a0 Bookish, a loner, sarcastic to a point that people wonder if I’m serious (sometimes I am), I don’t have a “people person” personality (or as I like to think of it, a PPP).<\/p>\n
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So I have always run in small circles.\u00a0 Like I can count my real friends on one hand.\u00a0 I would rather spend a day off spread out on a lounge by the pool, or in a big chair with a book and a warm, purring cat.\u00a0 Alone.\u00a0 Talk to someone?\u00a0 Oh, hell no.<\/p>\n
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So it has surprised me during my cancer journey to see the community that I have been building around myself.\u00a0 I have family who have gotten much closer to me, and I love every minute that I talk to them.\u00a0 Some of my close friends drifted away, but other friends have become my biggest defenders and cheerleaders.\u00a0 \u00a0And I make new friends, as it turns out that there is an actual audience who appreciates my personal brand of snark and witticism.<\/p>\n
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And then there is my family of pink sisters.\u00a0 \u00a0I swear that breast cancer bonds you in a way nothing else can.\u00a0 I have ladies in my support group around the globe that I talk to as much as my family.\u00a0 And it’s not just about cancer (although that is a frequent topic).\u00a0 We talk about our lives, our families, our friends, our jobs, our hopes, our plans, and how we want to give back and love on the great big world.\u00a0 We understand each other in a way that I couldn’t have conceived two years ago.\u00a0 A few have become more than just pink sisters, they are real sisters.\u00a0 \u00a0Needless to say, locations for my future travel plans are multiplied exponentially, because there isn’t anyone that I don’t want to hug in person at some point.<\/p>\n
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It really does take a village, or as we like to think of it, a tribe.\u00a0 Fear is lessened when it is shared, but joy has the opposite reaction.\u00a0 It explodes in the sky like firecrackers.\u00a0 I would never say that I’m glad I had cancer so I could learn this lesson.\u00a0 On the contrary, I would prefer that it never happened.\u00a0 But since I can’t turn back time, I am happy to find a silver lining.<\/p>\n
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A sense of community.<\/p>\n
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Dare I say it, a PPP.<\/p>\n
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