When I told my brother I’d been diagnosed with breast cancer he responded just as I knew he would: “Man, you got this. This shit ain’t gonna beat you. Imma holla at God tonight, tell him to take care of my big sister and you gonna be straight.”

And that was that. I knew I would be fine because my baby brother said so.

Even though I am 7 years and 6 months older than my brother, even though I cooked his breakfast on the weekends, taught him how to tie his shoes and helped him with homework, in some ways he has taken care of me as much as I’ve helped take care of him.

 

I can’t keep my own secrets – especially when it comes to cancer.

 

So, I have some things to confess.

 

1.     If you ask me to do something within the next 8 months and I don’t want to do it, I will play the cancer card.

2.     If I’m in a FitBit competition with you and I lose I’m going to play the cancer card.

Photography by Megan Tsang Hand

On January 1 I vowed to walk for exercise every day for 366 days in 2020.

Then on January 24, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.

I must confess that when I got the news one of my first thoughts was, “Crap! Is this going to mess up my plans to walk for exercise every day for 366 days?”

On January 24, 2020 I was diagnosed with breast cancer.

No, I hadn’t found a lump in my breast because I hadn’t been looking for one. In my mind, breast cancer wasn’t something I needed to worry about until I turned 40. And besides, I already had lupus. There was no way God would let me have two life-threatening illnesses, right?

Wrong.

I'm making plans for a beautiful school year.

As a teacher I get to make New Year Resolutions not once, but twice a year. Every August marks the start of a new school year and another chance to set goals and intentions for my teaching career and all other parts of my life. 

Here are my resolutions for the 2017-2018 school year:

As a writer I feel obligated to post some thought-provoking and heartfelt prose about what it meant to participate in the Women's March Alabama in Birmingham yesterday. But I'm honestly at a loss for words.

We're almost there. We've almost made it through the first week of 2017.

How did you do?

Did you tackle to-do lists like a boss? Did you go to the gym every day? Did you start working on your book?

If not, that's OK. Give yourself a bit of grace.

Grace -- that's my word for 2017.