Reflection & Rearview

Essay by: Brandy

Jim Valvano once said, “Cancer can take away all of my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart, and it cannot touch my soul.” After working at Fortune 50 Corporation (note: name of company changed for privacy reasons) for the last 9 months, I have meant some really important and life-changing people. But in all the people that I have come across at this company, a courageous woman outshined them all. Her name is Lauren, and I can honestly say she has changed my whole outlook on life into a positive one. My first interactions with Lauren began this summer, when I started at Fortune 50 Corporation on an 8 week summer internship program. She and I worked in the basement together in the heritage department.

When I first began working with Lauren, we were in the basement most of the time taking photos of artifacts and recording data of the photographs into the computer. Anytime we received new artifacts, Lauren would consult with my other coworkers to see if we wanted to keep the object, and if we did, Lauren and I would start our process to enter the information into the database. Because of how much time I spent with her, it’s like I got used to seeing Lauren around. We used to have team meetings together, go to lunch occasionally from time to time, and even have one-on-one sessions to get to know each other better. But then I started to realize that I was seeing her less and less. I would ask around about her, but no one was for sure about her whereabouts.

After a while, my curiosity began to overcome me with questions, so one day in mid-November, I decided to pay Lauren’s desk a visit. When I arrived, I could sense something was wrong by the type of eye contact we made as decided to take a seat. As time was passing, and we were catching up, I asked her if something was bothering her. She whispered ever so gently that she had cancer, and it felt like my heart had just completely shattered at that exact moment. I was bombarded with dozens of questions, to have reassurance that she was going to make sure she includes in her response that she would be okay.

As Lauren started to answer my questions I had sat back in the chair and just started to think to myself about how brave she was. This woman gets up out of her bed every morning to get her son off to school and then to start a full day of work with not a single complaint. She doesn’t use her sickness for a weakness. In fact, with her weakness, I still find her to be the strongest woman I’ve ever meant. Anyone who can have a sickness and still wake up and come to work with a smile on their face, most defiantly has my blessings. While looking back on my experience at this company, I have for sure done a 360 in my personality and socializing skills. 

By being around Lauren’s such positive and uprising spirits, I have learned to treat everyone around me with respect and only show love at all times, because you really never know what a person is going through. A person can appear to be smiling every day in front of others, but shed a thousand tears when they are in the comfort of their own homes. I believe God either puts people in your life to make you better or to make you realize you need to do better. But without a doubt, I do truly believe that God sent Lauren to open my eyes and realize that tomorrow is never promised to any of us, and I hate would hate to live with a list of regrets.

Note about the author: This essay is by Brandy, an awesome, hard-working young woman who is a senior in high school. She wrote this essay for an assignment at school and gave me permission to share it here with you. It made my day to read this.

Note about the photo source: The above photo was sent to me by Kellie. An all-around amazing human: a native Californian, plant and water whisperer; a creative beautiful soul who I had the great fortune and pleasure of meeting in college. Big love and shout out to Kellie and H. Sending big love to you both. Looking forward to a sunny rendezvous this summer in the desert, may it be so.