Things have been as crazy as possible around here lately, with homework and work work and girlfriend and just general life chaos. I’ve been pretty MIA from the rest of my life and definitely need to get back into the swing of things. Last weekend, I was a member of the crew for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in Boston – a completely amazing, life changing event to be involved with. I first started working with the Avon Walk in college when my friend whose family member had been diagnosed asked me to crew with her. The walk itself is 39.3 miles but I have been unable to train and make the time commitment to actually walk so I’ve joined the crew, a team of 400 who dedicates their weekend to helping orchestrate such a massive event. This year, 2600 walkers (plus 400 crew) raised $5.8 million for breast cancer treatment and research in New England and every second of the weekend I was reminded at how fragile life is, how incredible the human spirit can be and how resilient we all are. I met some wonderful people, including my tentmate Kate whose mom died of breast cancer when she was just 13 years old. The two of us spent the weekend laughing and cheering on walkers, hearing survivor stories and swapping life experiences.
Breast cancer has always been a cause close to my heart, for many reasons but in the last few months has become even more important and front of mind. My girlfriend’s mother is a breast cancer survivor and that fact alone puts her at risk for developing it later in life as well. I have never felt more strongly connected to this community than I did this time around, fighting to find a cure for something that could potentially harm my family some day. For something that already hit the most important person in my life.
I got pretty sick after the walk this time around, mostly due to dehydration and severe exhaustion but I would do it all again, in a heartbeat, knowing that my help (however small) contributes to saving someone else’s mother, someone else’s wife, someone else’s daughter. And maybe my own, too.
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On a side note, a number of months ago today, a girl walked into a coffee shop (on a date with someone else, mind you) and totally changed my life. Sometimes it seems crazy to me how short of a time we’ve known each other and how strong this all feels. How undeniably certain I am. Sometimes it seems impossible to have fallen so madly in love with someone who is so ridiculously perfect for me in every way. And even more impossible that she loves me back in a way I can’t even fathom at times. Sometimes it seems like I am dreaming and one pinch would shake me from all of this because I never imagined that something like this was possible. But whatever the explanation is, I know that when I look at her, I have every single thing in the world that I need – and how ridiculously lucky is that?