Bucket List reflections

Entertaining movie; worth the watch. As it started to unfold and death was chasing both Edward and Carter I started to think about my father's experience with cancer. I did not expect this to happen when the movie first began, but the parallels were so striking that I had no choice.

His experience was nothing like theirs. He was given six months to live upon diagnosis and six months he got. There was no jet setting around the globe or random acts of fun. There was hospital, chemo, bed, repeat. All along, we were fortunate enough to watch his quality of life steadily decline.

I was a senior in college at the time and came home when I could. He was diagnosed shortly before Thanksgiving in 1998 at the ripe age of 60. That means I spent Christmas, New Years and a few random moments with him that I now savor as my last. He did not make it to see me graduate from college; the saddest part of the whole story. He missed Commencement by four days.

I struggled to enjoy my final days as a college senior before the big, bad real world would come down upon me. Several changes were all about to happen at once. I graduated from college thereby losing my current circle of friends and way of life that I had gotten used to for the past four years, my sister moved out of state to pursue her dreams and my father passed. For those at home, I lost three things when I gained my diploma:
1)College
2)Sister
3)Father

Sice then, Mom and I have been keeping the clocks on time and trying to make sure all is good. I lived with Mom for two years after graduating before I ventured out on my own. It was time and she was stable. Finances were in order and we needed time apart.

I'm in a much better place now. It's been 9 years since I lost my father to pancreatic and liver cancer and every day is a new challenge. I still carry the torch he passed on to me many years ago and it continues to fuel my fire in my personal life and professional career. That torch has pissed off more than a few individuals along the way. That's their problem. They need to toughen up and get with it. Your life is not that bad. Neither is mine; this is not a "woe is me" post, but rather a reflection upon how some feel that life is tough for them. It can get a whole lot tougher in one instant; one announcement - Daddy's sick.