Who is a survivor?
One dictionary explains it this way:
It is somebody with great powers of endurance. Somebody who
shows a great will to live or a great determination to overcome difficulties
and carry on.
To survive is to remain alive or in existence or able to
live or function, especially succeed in staying alive when faced with a
life-threatening danger.
The day you or a loved one receive a cancer diagnosis you begin
life as a survivor.
Everything changes in your life. You now have a fight to
keep living. You don’t understand it if you or a family member’s life hasn't
been threatened in this this way.
There is a TV show where people try to survive to the end of
the show, or they try to overcome obstacles that may seem challenging. This is
not surviving in this you have a choice. You can go home or stop playing. In
real life you have limited choices. It doesn't go away and you can’t give up
and go home. If you do you cease to exist. So you struggle every day to survive
mentally, emotionally and physically.
Survivors are a different breed of people. You find the
inner strength and determination in yourself.
They are stronger, more sensitive, more appreciative, more
forgiving, more determined. You can become More hopeful more joyful, More caring.
You start to notice the little good things in life; hopefully you don’t sweat the
UN important things. Their focus changes it becomes more focused on life and
living every day.
You become more spiritual
you pray more you thank god for every day you are alive. You read the bible
more, you find comfort there. You want
to tell others about the good things you read and the hope you have for the
future. You enjoy family and friends more.
Some of us begin a
project like Jessie’s bags doing something for other it helps you stay
occupied. It keeps the negative from overwhelming us and then we would give up. You enjoy making
someone else smile. And when they get the gift bag and you talk to them you see it in their eyes
they understand surviving.
we are survivors!
