My Misinformation

Which is being a shy small town girl who never wanted to speak in front of people because of fear of what they think or say. Years after her diagnosis she has become one of the most well know breast cancer activist in the United States. She believes that God brought her through the cancer the first time and used it for good. She also believes that the cancer has made her marriage and family stronger. Cancer can cause depression, body image issues, anxiety and fear, but your attitude about your diagnosis can make a big difference during your treatment. Always try to stay positive and when you you’re a survivor try to make a difference to help

“Don’t give up, don’t ever give up.” The words of the great Jimmy Valvano. Jimmy was a Men’s Basketball Coach at N.C. State University. He is one of the greatest coaches of all time. But he is also the man who delivered the “Never Give Up” speech at the ESPY Awards in 1993. This has inspired so many people. It’s the thought of Cancer that often brings Jimmy into mind. Stuart Scott is also very inspirational when it comes to cancer. A real inspiration is Mrs. Spatz. She has beat cancer 4 times. Over and over again, she has fought and beat cancer. She is now a teacher at Wyndcroft Private School in Pottstown. Although she is my mother, she creates inspiration for many

“Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” I try to live by this quote by Charles R. Swindoll every day. I feel that this is a strong quote with a lot of meaning behind it and, it can be interpreted in many ways. In my opinion, we should see things in a positive way all the time. We also should do what we love every day because you never know how close you are to the end.

“For a lot of people, life is a series of day by day decisions, living each day trying to do the best we can, and where we end up in life is not always where we would have predicted when we were

It is often said that kids don’t usually understand race or racism, and that is true until Janie is met with kids who have faced oppression all their lives. Janie is a young girl who is raised by her grandmother in the deep South during the 1930’s. Janie lives among many white kids and doesn’t realize that she is not white until she sees a photo of the children and cannot identify herself in the picture. “Dat’s where Ah wuz s’posed to be, but Ah couldn’t recognize dat dark chile as me. So Ah ast, ‘where is me?’ Ah don’t see me’”(9). Janie didn’t know that she was a black girl because she had always been treated the same as the white kids, and they never treated her any differently than anyone else. The only kids that ever abused her with their words were the other black kids at school, they always teased her for living in

There are five words I grew up hearing continuously spoken from the mouths of my parents “Don’t take things for granted.” Unlike what many of my black friends or just black people in general can say, I grew up with everything I could ever ask for and more. My parents don’t consider themselves wealthy; instead they prefer the word comfortable. My mother grew up in segregated schools, but she also grew up in desegregated schools, of which her experience she said wasn’t bad for her. In 5th grade when they first combined whites and blacks it was just her and this other black boy in class and the both of them together were mistaken for being white because of how light their skin was. My father on the other hand had it much worse than my mother segregated or not. The stories he speaks of still to this day

I was late for school, and my father had to walk me in to class so that my teacher would know the reason for my tardiness. My dad opened the door to my classroom, and there was a hush of silence. Everyone's eyes were fixed on my father and me. He told the teacher why I was late, gave me a kiss goodbye and left for work. As I sat down at my seat, all of my so-called friends called me names and teased me. The students teased me not because I was late, but because my father was black. They were too young to understand. All of this time, they thought that I was white, because I had fare skin like them, therefore I had to be white. Growing up having a white mother and a black father was tough. To

I never really thought I would be involved with cancer in the way I am now, as in being a student in

Many of my patients have been abused as children; sexually, physically and mentally. I had one patient who was physically abused as a child by his step father. He would beat him into submission every day while his mother would watch. As a teenager he started karate and became a third degree black belt to protect himself. He became a drug dealer, known to be a violent man. He was jumped on the street and crushed the skull of the man who attacked him. He was awaiting his trial while in my program. I carried his story with me for days and I questioned my ability to work in this field. I kept questioning how something like this could happen. Where were his teachers? How could no one know what was happening to this young child? What would I do if it were to happen to my children? It kept me up at night and I had a constant feeling of dread in my stomach. I eventually talked to my supervisor and just talking it through helped me to feel better.

One of the first times I ever went to a hospital was when I had to have a medical examination done to support sexual assault allegations. I was 12, and I elected not to have my mother with me for fear that she could not emotionally handle what was about to happen. Although I was lucky to have compassionate physicians, I still remember the loneliness that I felt and that I would continue to feel after that appointment. I was fortunate enough to be able to receive free therapy throughout my high school years, and that is something that has never been lost on me. Because of this, I have a personal passion for supporting sexual assault victims in whatever way I can. Throughout my high school years, I spoke at various engagement to fundraise for

“Don’t say that! Your father isn’t racist, racist is lynching a black man, and killing jewish babies. Your father was only joking.”, responds my mother, who has a similar reaction every time one of us says the other was being racist. This was spurred when a black guy walked past our car at a red light. This story is a perfect example of the outside perspectives of discrimination.

There were whole families of this different race that I hadn’t had much experience with. Of course, I didn’t see anything wrong with them, I was just unaware at how many people of the different color were in the same place at the same time. Being in the second or third grade, they try not to bring racism up nearly as much so I wasn’t fully knowledge on why they were different, and I was unaware that they got treated badly. Well I was just about to learn all about this simple, or not so simple word, racism.

At the age of six, one of my first memories is my mother walking down the street, holding my hand, and being verbally assaulted by a women, saying that people with my skin color do not belong

I realize that the most capable physicians can heal because they have been sick and are able to fix because of their own brokenness. In other words, adversity builds character and changes people for the better. In my case, my disadvantaged upbringing has made me a better person, son, father and potentially a better public servant. After my parents divorced in 2000, my mother and I moved to Little Rock, Arkansas where we struggled to get by. Enduring that hardship with her changed me from an early age. Some nights I stayed at my best friend’s apartment, because we had no electricity. In a sense, this deprivation allowed me to mature and understand that in life you must sacrifice for a larger

This was the first time that I felt the wrath of racism. The ignorance, hate, and annoyance that I felt as an eight year old that day scarred me for a long time. When I went home and cried to my sister about it, she told me that there will always be people like that in this world, and that there will be three times that many kind people. Instead of feeling fear and hostility, this optimistic message pushed me forward to be more hopeful. As I grew older, I took all the adversities I faced, and fought against them. I did not just want to ignore my feelings and hide away because I knew that somewhere in the world, there were others fighting the same racist battle. Instead, I began to participate in campaigns against bullying and racism to make a true impact and change in the world.