One Big Family (of Warriors)

Since my diagnosis, I've felt a distinct and total kinship with fellow cancer warriors that has only grown deeper as time has passed. It makes sense, of course. Although we cancer warriors walk different paths and have different circumstances coloring each of our lives, there is much we share. We've all had those moments when we think -- holy cow, I HAVE CANCER. We've all endured similar medical experiences -- chemo, surgery, CT scans, barium drinks, blood draws, and portacaths. And we all share the ultimate goal of beating cancer and getting back to our regularly scheduled lives. 

It's always such a pleasure to meet other cancer warriors, whether at Norris or through the blog or, most recently and most unexpectedly, through Twitter.

My newest cancer warrior friend is Stuart Scott, the famous ESPN analyst, a UNC alum (cue the boos), and an awesome guy who knows his stuff about sports. Naturally, I follow him on Twitter and look forward to his insights on all things college basketball. The other day, Stuart was talking about which players should be considered for National Player of the Year, and he failed to include Nolan Smith in the conversation. As in, the Duke captain that brings tears to my eyes. As in, the ACC Player of the Year and the National Player of the Year according to Fox Sports and Yahoo! (and those are just the early awards -- more will be on the way). Clearly, I was going to call him out. I responded to his tweet, pointing out that he had forgotten Nolan, let him know that it was a serious error, and accused him of an anti-Duke bias given his UNC roots.

Strangely enough, our friendship grew from there. After chatting about hoops for a bit, I changed the subject to another passion we share: beating the hell out of cancer. I congratulated him on his most recent surgery and told him about mine. I told him about the blog and we discussed how both of us hit the gym right after chemo treatments. Soon, we realized that even though we'd never want each other's basketball team to win, we were actually teammates. And that's what we call each other now. I mocked him after he tweeted his support for Hampton (the team that Duke beat by 42 points today), and he responded with "'sup teammate?" I told him that I'd recently seen him on SportsCenter and added, "Looking good, teammate!" 

Even though it's an idiotic disease, cancer does bring together a community of passionate, life-loving, strong people. We are the cancer warriors. Together, we show what the human spirit, the human heart, and the human body can achieve. 

I'm blessed to belong to such a family of warriors.