Hope For Healthcare
At 25 I was young, active and had my whole life ahead of me. I obtained my Bachelor's Degree in two and a half years and my Master's Degree in one year. I was a dolphin trainer at Sea World and was about to become a filmmaker. I loved my life. Then one day everything changed. On Thanksgiving I started coughing and found a lump on my throat. Within days I was in surgery to have the lump removed. The results showed a malignant tumor. Unfortunately, it didn't end there. X-rays showed that my lungs were riddled with more tumors. The diagnosis was lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph nodes. If I didn't undergo treatment I would be dead within the year. I was devastated; I couldn't believe this was happening to me.
I had the normal reaction of disbelief and crying initially. Then I remembered this tape that I had listened to over 30 times just 2 years prior. It was called "Top Performance" by Zig Ziglar. In it there was this great story of Mr. Ziglar turning a negative experience into a positive one. He is at the airport and has been told that his flight's been canceled and the next flight doesn't take off for a few hours. In this situation most people would have been upset, complaining and saying woe is me, but not Zig. He said "Fantastic!" Then he came up with reasons why it's great that his flight has been canceled. He figured there is one of three reasons why that flight wasn't taking off. One is that there is something wrong with that plane and if there is something wrong with that plane he doesn't want to be up there he wants to be right down here. Fantastic! Two, there is something wrong with the people who are going to fly that plane. Three, there is something wrong with the weather they are going to fly that plane in. Zig came up with all the reasons why his flight being canceled was fantastic. He finishes by saying that "They can cancel my flight, but they can not cancel my day."
After the initial shock of being told that I had less than a year to live if I didn't undergo treatment, I thought "If Mr. Ziglar can say that at an airport, then I can say it in the face of cancer." I started thinking and saying out loud how great it was that I had cancer. I thought, now I'll be able to add this to my list of accomplishments: I was a dolphin trainer, obtained my bachelor's degree in 2 1/2 years, my master's degree in 1 year and now I can add cancer survivor to that list. When I went in for chemotherapy, I thought it was fantastic because we were killing the cancer. When my boyfriend left me after finding out that I had cancer, I thought it was fantastic because I discovered who my friends really were. When my diagnosis changed from a type of cancer with a high survival rate to one with a lower survival rate, I thought fantastic because if they hadn't discovered that piece of information then I would have been under-treated and would have had an even smaller chance of surviving. Fantastic! I looked at all the positives of my situation and believe it or not you can find positives in even the bleakest of situations. You just need to look hard enough.
Now this part is important. Did I really feel like it was fantastic that I had cancer? No, not initially, however, I kept that positive dialogue going and kept reminding myself of the good things that were happening in my life. It was as if I was continually giving myself a pep talk to keep going through this experience. There was no other choice. I may have had cancer in my body, but I wasn't going to allow it to spread to my soul.
It was Zig's tape and the airport story in particular that helped me get through a difficult time in my life. Right now I am listening to the rest of his tapes and CD's and find more and more inspirational messages in everything that I hear. Please let him know that he helped me get through a rough battle with cancer. I am very grateful to have come across his tape in the public library and to have listened to it over 30 times. I hope other people are as fortunate as I was in finding Zig Ziglar and benefiting from his message.
