F*** Off, Cancer!

Brittany E. Start Date: Oct 31, 2019 - End Date: Mar 28, 2020

My Travel Story

by: Brittany E. Start Date: Oct 31, 2019 - End Date: Mar 28, 2020
Across the last 6 years, life has dealt me my fair share of lemons, with which I have done my hardest to make some damn good (strawberry) lemonade. The low down: December 2013: my mother-in-law is diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. Then, in April 2014 ,three days before my 29th birthday, I was diagnosed with cervical uterine cancer (the most aggressive case San Francisco doctors had seen, at least at the time, according to the team of oncologists and gynecological surgeons). A radical robotic hysterectomy was the hopeful cure. Then, 2 weeks before my operation, my boyfriend was laid off. Now, if you know anything about the cost of living in the San Francisco Bay Area, you'll understand the financial hardship that has followed my now-husband and I ever since my diagnosis/his lay-off. The struggle that followed: credit card debt that accumulated trying to survive the financial blow of cancer, not working, and living in the most expensive area in the U.S.; the loss of our home/downsizing to a small one-bedroom apartment because of the financial struggle, my completion of grad school, which welcomed federal loans; and then my husband's throat cancer diagnosis in 2018.  My mother-in-law died during my husband's first week of chemo & radiation treatment, and it seemed as though cancer was taking the lead in our lives. To make ends meet as the sole provider, not only do I work full-time doing what I love, I potty train kids with special needs in 5 days flat and provide consultation, I'm an artist that actually sells my work every now and then (I'm grateful people like it enough to pay for it), I babysit, AND I supervise a grad student that's working toward becoming a behavior analyst. Yet, the struggle remains in full force.

I'm overworked; I'm tired; I help others for a living and take care of my husband, my clients, my supervisee, the bills, my cat, you name it---except for myself. I can't even recall the last time I did something for myself, for my carefree enjoyment. In fact, I've gone on one vacation in the last 16 years. ONE. In my day-to-day life, I'm not living; I'm simply busting my ass just to get by with not much to show for it but a roof (barely) over our heads. I'm 34---shouldn't I be having the time of my life (adulting responsibilities aside), enjoying what's left of my youth, my vitality?

The Japanese know what's up when it comes to living a long, healthy life, and the Japanese culture, despite idolizing materialistic America, is refreshing compared to that of the greedy, entitled, hyper-sensitive modern-day American. My husband and I need a vacation: a vacation from the daily grind, a vacation from cancer, a vacation from the negativity that is polluting American culture. And what better place to put the daily grind on hold than in Japan? (Exactly: there isn't.) 

A trip to Japan will be more than a vacation; it will provide me the opportunity, the space, the ability to quench my thirst for travel, to give cancer the middle finger and emerse myself in a culture that respects other people, nature, health, wisdom, family. I just know that a trip there will be the breath of fresh air I've been gasping for since being served the longest, hard-hitting noogie from life. To receive help from others so I can achieve this will fuel my spirit and kick my optimism into 5th gear.