My Cancer Confidence Boost

Having cancer taught me so many things about myself and caused me to feel emotions that I didn’t even know were possible. Obviously, there were many negative sides of being diagnosed with cancer, but I want to talk about one of the more positive things that resulted from my diagnosis.

Once I finished my treatment, I felt on top of the world. Life felt perfect and I couldn’t imagine how anything could ever bother me again. Nothing seemed like a big deal anymore, I learned to not stress the small stuff, and I was pretty happy overall. Life isn’t perfect though and those feelings didn’t last forever, at least not to the extent that I first felt them, but the one thing that stuck with me even a year after finishing chemo was the confidence boost that cancer gave me.

New-found confidence after cancer

Cancer and improved confidence are two words that I never would have expected to use in the same sentence but hear me out.

Anyone that has gone through chemo knows how difficult it is. Surviving every treatment felt like an accomplishment in itself and I would always remind myself that if I can get through the mental, emotional, and physical difficulties that chemo brings, I can do anything. After all, for me, chemo was the hardest thing that I had ever put my body through and I learned to start doing things that would usually make me uncomfortable or scare me.

I started giving speeches in front of large groups of people, pushing my body to do things I never thought I was capable of like running a half marathon, and stepping outside of my comfort zone in any way and at any chance I got. Although some of these things I was doing still intimidated me, I would just remind myself that if I can get through cancer, I can do anything.

If I can get through cancer, I can do anything

This feeling became addictive in the best way. Anytime I would accomplish a goal that at one point seemed out of reach for me, I got the courage to set a new, bigger goal for myself.

Cancer also taught me that life is too short to say no to new opportunities. If I have the chance to go on a new life adventure, you can bet I’ll take it! I spent too much of my life not physically able to do much thanks to cancer, but now I’m using my prior diagnosis to my advantage and allowing myself to do more than I ever thought was possible.

Cancer has the ability to limit us in ways that we have no control over, but we still have the ability to show cancer who’s boss and live our lives to the absolute fullest.