Cancer Survivor: I want to be one just Not Sure I Like The Title

I walked into the room. Twenty or thirty high school aged students are watching my every move. On the projection screen, blaring above my head as I take center stage is a sign that says “Rick Dancer, Cancer Survivor.”

I stood in front of this room full of wide-eyed students and found words unable to roll off my tongue. My eyes started watering, my hands shaking, my voice unable to speak and the tears started to flow.

The only thing I could say, after a very uncomfortable moment was, I’ve never seen my name under that title before.

I don’t technically qualify as a “Cancer Survivor” yet and I want to be a “Cancer Survivor.” But I’m not sure I like the title. I’ve lost many titles over the last few years, Main Anchor, Candidate, Politician and now I find myself with a new label.

I hope I am a survivor of cancer but am not sure I’m going to call myself one. I think I’d rather just be a liver of life, a guy who smiles in the face of death, and a man who fought himself and won. I don’t want anyone to take this the wrong way because I WANT TO SURVIVE. But even when I was in the News Business, I didn’t like calling people survivors. For some reason the word isn’t strong enough. For some reason it sounds like they managed to make it. Maybe the TV show Survivor ruined the word for me.

I will never forget the look in those 50 or 60 eyes watching me as I cried. Some teared up, some stared back, all were so respectful, careful, concerned and surprised as life was lived out loud, out-front and out of the box.

2 Comments

• 
  kathryn55 April 26, 2010 at 1:37 pm

  We may never survive anything hard in this life, but we all share a common label and that is that we are all the spirit children of our Heavenly Father. His son, our spirit brother, Jesus Christ,volunteered to give His life that we may live. He suffered all the pains, sins, illnesses, heartache, grief and agony that comes into our lives on a daily basis. He knows what we go through, but it is up to us to contact Him through prayer to ask for His comfort and sustaining through our hard times.There are no questions asked from Him as he gives to us willingly according to our faith and obedience to the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
  To this I ask are we merely Sunday saints or daily saints in our actions, words and deeds. Do we truely honor the simplist of laws _ The Ten Commandments _ or do we give more value to the world and it's fads, philosphies of man, our stature or those around us. For all our taking how would we really feel if He were to stand among us today? Would we watch our words, cover our bodies,worry about our possessions. Would our Saviour even recognize us by the light in our eyes and the truths we reflect?
• 
  kathryn55 April 26, 2010 at 3:37 pm

  We may never survive anything hard in this life, but we all share a common label and that is that we are all the spirit children of our Heavenly Father. His son, our spirit brother, Jesus Christ,volunteered to give His life that we may live. He suffered all the pains, sins, illnesses, heartache, grief and agony that comes into our lives on a daily basis. He knows what we go through, but it is up to us to contact Him through prayer to ask for His comfort and sustaining through our hard times.There are no questions asked from Him as he gives to us willingly according to our faith and obedience to the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
  
  To this I ask are we merely Sunday saints or daily saints in our actions, words and deeds. Do we truely honor the simplist of laws _ The Ten Commandments _ or do we give more value to the world and it's fads, philosphies of man, our stature or those around us. For all our taking how would we really feel if He were to stand among us today? Would we watch our words, cover our bodies,worry about our possessions. Would our Saviour even recognize us by the light in our eyes and the truths we reflect?