Sunflowers

At the beginning of this school year, everything was uncertain.  I was waiting on biopsy results and the waiting was painful.  As a special education teacher, I have more flexibility during the first week of school as I don't usually start pulling groups until my students have a chance to adjust to their new classrooms, teachers, and peers. Therefore, I can help out when crazy-first-week-of-school-stuff happens. During the first week of school, buses don't run very well.  Many students are without bus routes.  Buses are late.  Students are left off of bus rosters.  You get the point.  So, one of my "jobs" during the first week of school was to pick up a 3rd grade student every morning with another teacher.  His family had just moved out of a shelter and he wasn't assigned a bus yet.  Little did I know that these morning interactions would end up inspiring me during this crazy experience with cancer.

Every morning that week, my colleague and I would drive out to pick up our 3rd grade friend.  On our route to his apartment, there were SO MANY SUNFLOWERS in yards, along the road, and in gardens.  In the middle of Dorchester.  Sunflowers in Dorchester.  It was magical.  So every morning, we would mention how cool it was to see the sunflowers to our student.  At first, he seemed uninterested in our excitement about sunflowers.  Then, on Wednesday during the first week of school, I was diagnosed with cancer.  My colleague picked up our 3rd grade friend by herself the rest of the week.

The next week, my colleague gave me a sunflower plant for my home.  It was lovely.  It reminded me of the joy we felt during the first week of school when sunflowers in Dorchester were magical.  Our 3rd grade student wanted the sunflower to be from him also.  This made me smile.

As my last day at school approached, many students drew me cards and wished me well.  My 3rd grade friend made me a beautiful book of drawings and this was the first page.  Those are sunflowers.  And they are for me.  Does life get any better?

So, I'm calling this blog sunflowers and cancer. The sunflowers are those magical moments in life when you remember how amazing life is.  And the cancer parts - well, those suck.  

Here's to more sunflower moments than cancer parts in the near future.