A 12 year olds perspective

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cmb35
cmb35 Member Posts: 1,106
edited June 2014 in Life After Breast Cancer

My 12 year old son's homework assignment to describe a noun:

"In my experience the word hope is something that if lost there is very little left in life. Hope is necessary to get through strife. I needed to have hope during my mom's battle with breast cancer, my mom needed hope through that ordeal she needed the hope that she would make it through and her hope turned into a reality. Hope means that you need or have to have something happen, like the hope of finding true love or the hope that everything will turn out well in the end. If you don't have hope you don't have life. Hope is the greatest feeling of all, to have hope."

He had just turned 9 when I was dx, and while I'm sad for him that his description of "hope" isn't a more typical 12 year olds, like hoping for a new video game, I am so very proud of him.

Thanks for letting me share....

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Comments

  • Sociologist
    Sociologist Member Posts: 237
    edited October 2008

    What a cool kid! I wish my college students could write as well. Thanks for sharing!

    Margaret

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  • wishiwere
    wishiwere Member Posts: 3,793
    edited October 2008

    Great kid!  Give him 'big boy' hugs from us too :)  Sharp kid!

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited October 2008

    What a deep thinking perseptive you man you have there!!!!!! You have every right to be sad and proud all at the same time...

    Thank you for sharing with us....even though kids are in our daily lives I think sometimes their thoughts get pushed to the back of the plate and I think its important to acknowlege their thoughts and feelings about the fact that they are also living with breast cancer or any life threatening disease for that matter...

    Again, thank you for sharing your fella with us...

    Jule

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  • Maryiz
    Maryiz Member Posts: 975
    edited October 2008

    Wow, that really says a lot about your son.  Elizabeth Edwards said when her cancer reoccured, she just wanted "hope," the possibility that something would come down the pipeline that would let her live and see her young children grow.  I love this.  My brother is an English professor, I think he would be amazed.  Thanks for sharing. Maryiz

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  • iodine
    iodine Member Posts: 4,289
    edited October 2008

    Your son is so articulate and has an amazing way with expression.  He is to be commended and I bet he goes far!

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  • iodine
    iodine Member Posts: 4,289
    edited October 2008

    Your son is so articulate and has an amazing way with expression.  He is to be commended and I bet he goes far!

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited October 2008

    Colleen:  Wow, just found this post and brought a tear to my eyes.  Im watching your son grow up before my very eyes.

    Nicki

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited October 2008

    WOW!!!  Colleen, your son is amazing!!!  Thank you soooo much for sharing his homework assignment. 

    Doreen

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  • KAK
    KAK Member Posts: 1,679
    edited October 2008

    Colleen, thanks for posting your son's perspective.  I was very touched.  I think we often don't give kids enough credit for being perceptive & articulate.  No one would wish on any kid that he would have to watch his mom battle a life-threatening disease, but he has obviously learned some amazing lessons by watching how you went through it.  It's so great that you were open enough to let him go through it with you the way you must have done.

    My girlfriend's sister died of breast cancer about 5 years ago.  Her two daughters were 11 and 13 at the time.  You never know how you or anyone is going to deal with something like this.  But she never actually sat her girls down & admitted she had cancer & that she might die from it.  It left those girls in a very tough spot when she finally succumbed, which they are still trying to recover from.

    Your son is lucky to have you, in more ways than one.

    Kathi

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  • NancyD
    NancyD Member Posts: 3,562
    edited October 2008

    He gets it. He really gets it.

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  • cmb35
    cmb35 Member Posts: 1,106
    edited October 2008

    Everyone, thanks so much, and I agree he's a great kid (although I think you could say I'm more than a little biased! Wink)

    I do think that kids are a lot "smarter" about things than we sometimes realize. At the Making Strides Walk this year, we passed by a poster of a woman we met through the walk, I pointed to it and said, "oh Warren look, it's Augusta!" He smiled a huge smile, and then his face fell and he said, "oh wait, is she still alive?" Moments like that break my heart, because they make me realize that despite the fact that we are both doing very well as we "move beyond cancer", and appear to be happy and normal on the surface, he has that same fear, or reality of what breast cancer is I guess, lurking in the back of his mind as I do.

    kathi - you story about your friend broke my heart, it's so hard to know what is the right thing when you have kids, you don't want them to scare them, but you don't want to leave them completely unprepared either. I will send special prayers out to those 2 girls tonight.

    Have a great Sunday everyone!

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  • murphmort
    murphmort Member Posts: 157
    edited October 2008

    Wow.  Your son is a very special young man.  My son was 14 when I was diagnosed and is just now starting to talk about it.  His high school participated in the Making Strides Walk on October 5th and he asked his friends on the football team to do the walk.  Over 100 kids participated and raised $3000.  I received so many hugs that day!!!

    The one thing I hope my children learn from this experience is empathy and compassion for others.  It sounds like your son has those characteristics.  Great job, Mom!!!

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  • KAK
    KAK Member Posts: 1,679
    edited October 2008

    Colleen, thanks for your prayers.  I will pass your message onto to my friend for her nieces.  Kathi

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  • easyquilts
    easyquilts Member Posts: 876
    edited October 2008

    Awesone kid!  You  have every right to be proud of him.....Wow.

    Sandy 

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