[andutu]

During my junior year in high school my mom was diagnosed with early stage breast cancer.

It took an emotional toll on my family. I went to a competitive public high school so after feeling tired from school I would come back home and see my mom with a wig on or hooked up to a pneumatic pump which she still uses daily even after remission. It just made me feel even more depressed on top of the feeling I had of not being good enough to my peers. I even shamelessly tried to use this event in my college apps which was a terrible idea in hindsight.

But I realized that this mindset that I had wasn't productive. At least for me, I try to think about how there are people out there who have it way worse than me: abusive families, poverty, etc.. When I saw on Facebook that a classmate I knew had their mother pass from cancer and they still kept a positive attitude, I realized that my family had gotten lucky and that, for me, the problem I was dealing with wasn't so much my mom's cancer but my mindset.

So I would say just try to find something, anything, to be grateful for everyday. These things are emotionally devastating and I wish the best for your family.