Spreading Hope & Happiness at ASU

 

FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 2014

Spreading HOPE & HAPPINESS at ASU

I was contacted by Dr. Compton a few weeks ago via email and asked if I would be willing to speak to her eager young students at ASU about my journey with cancer. I was terrified to do it; I couldn't imagine what I could say or do to help these students interested in medicine--I agreed to do it; I was listening to my heart on this request.
Gratefully, I listened to the still, small peaceful voice inside of me and said yes. Yesterday was the day I had nothing prepared, every time I started to write notes, it was silly; I thought, "why am I writing anything down? This is my life, I've lived it, I've felt it, and I'm surviving it"  Eric, the public speaker, said, "you need to write some bullet points of what you want to cover in case you forget".....I did, but I only had to refer to them once, and that was to quote something I had written on my blog about a night I was desperate for relief.
I actually loved being able to speak with these students and Dr. Compton. I did have a hiccup; the slide show that I thought was in the order of dates was not--so it made it difficult to show them my journey through a PowerPoint with pictures from my blog and FB. When I realized this would not work, I did the best I could and spoke from my heart.
I never thought I would be able to speak for an hour and 15 minutes, but I did it--I saw one student asleep, so pretty sure that what I had to say did not resignate with all of them. Eric came to support me, and my son in law Brian happened to be on campus. He, too, came to support me, and it was good to have them there--Brian is always so good about going out of his way for things like this, I love him for so many things, and this is just another.
Just a note about Dr. Compton, she is a lovely, beautiful woman inside and out. Hopefully, those students already know what a gem of a woman she is. Doctor, mentor, and instructor. I felt at peace, I felt strong, and most of all, I felt BRAVE.

Dr. Compton and I. She is so gracious and kind

Some of the students--the girls are sisters from the Ivory Coast...One just got accepted to Medical School the other headed off for a fellowship at Harvard. Full Scholarship, such smart, lovely girls. These are our future Doctors.

Eric loved speaking with them in French.