The Beginning

It started with communication.

Or, rather, with my Principles and Theories of Communication class at Marymount Manhattan College. We kept a blog as a running class assignment; almost every week we were required to answer a question or type a response on our blogs, and comment on another student's. This showed me how easy this blogging thing is. I could handle it. It's all good.

Then I started my own blog, free of requirements. I used it only to post poetry or prose I wrote, for friends who wanted to read it. That was all.

Next came online classes. I had to drop out of Marymount and start taking online college courses at Fairleigh Dickinson because of my cancer treatments. I couldn't deal with the normal schedule of a regular college because I had no idea when I would be sick. I get sick often, and I miss too many classes. Plus, I had a new treatment coming up, and I didn't know how I would react to that one. Much safer to try something new - online classes. However, I signed up late, so I was stuck choosing from the leftovers, classes that hadn't yet become full. I wasn't upset though; there were still a bunch of interesting ones. Like this one: Blogging! I signed up immediately.

Then I suddenly just couldn't stop writing. I've always loved writing, and I keep a journal right next to my bed for any late-night inspiration. Usually that's the only time I have inspiration, actually. But suddenly I was on a roll. I wrote in that journal at all times of the day, and when I realized I needed a way to write faster and longer, I switched to my computer, typing out stories in Microsoft Word for Mac.

I posted some of these stories on my Facebook account. I let family and friends read others. Everyone encouraged me to do something. My aunt, a Huffington Post blogger, told me I should start a blog. My online class was telling me I would have to start a blog. My mom supported the same idea.

So here I am now. Blogging. It is an account of my life, my thoughts, and my feelings, as a 19-year-old girl, fighting cancer for 6 years. It is the accumulation of my time and my self. It won't be in order. My life isn't always in order. I may remember things differently than others - I spent a portion of my life suffering from something oncologists like to call "chemo brain"! But these are all true feelings. Maybe you haven't experienced the same events I have, but I'm sure we've felt some of the same feelings and learned some of the same things. I just like to do things differently. ;)