My research partner and I did a study on cancer back in high school (it feels sort of weird saying that. I guess I’m not used to being a high school graduate yet). It spanned for two school years—one for conceptualizing the procedures and all, and another for actually doing it.
In that research class, before we got to decide on their partners or group mates, we were all required to come up with our own individual study proposals. Because of childish ambition and my affinity towards words that start with x, I chose a certain genetic disease called xeroderma pigmentosum and did a concept paper on one symptom, the melanoma. While I was writing the concept paper I was so engrossed in finishing it that I never had the time to reflect on the reason why I chose that particular topic in the first place. Melanoma is, as mentioned in the video, the most common form of cancer occurring in teenagers and young adults. At this very moment, numerous people are receiving chemotherapy. Other cancer patients may have already left the physical world because they have neither money to spend nor a family to take care of them.
There is a teacher in my high school I very much look up to. She calls herself an anticancer advocate. I once did an interview with her for the school paper, and all along I was listening to her, I felt as if I never achieved anything spectacular my whole life. In front of me was a woman who fought against something most people merely succumb to, and all I had to be proud of myself was my pretty head of hair. I listened intently as she told me her story; she narrated the whole ordeal step by step with a lot of enthusiasm. I couldn’t help but be amazed.
I hope I get to meet more cancer survivors someday. Their stories need to be told.
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