Bald is Beautiful

IT'S ALL REVERSIBLE AND TEMPORARY 1 ...a sentence my oncosurgeon would tell me everytime he found me running low on hope. Soon enough, this became my mantra through my journey of encountering and defeating the proverbial crab — Cancer. I have always been one to neglect my health, thus, it was probably out of sheer good luck that I happened to find the tumor at my breast. I wouldn’t have paid attention to the unfamiliar protrusion that I could feel. But just that morning a family member had undergone a biopsy, and I was more than uncharacteristically alert to any ailments. We wanted to make sure it wasn’t cancer and were advised to undergo mammography and biopsy. The reports took a week to arrive, during which I could think of nothing other than the suspense and trepidation. There is, of course, only so long that you can ignore fate. When the folder finally did arrive it revealed to me my newest designation besides Counsellor, Graphologist, Author, and Mother, I was now also “Stage 1 cancer patient”. I had planned out the year – to reach further heights professionally as a Coach and Graphologist, visit a foreign country and serve at some sphere of humanity and there came one sheet of paper to swirl my life off the road and into unchartered waters. This sudden jolt of destiny made me momentarily question human agency. How much was my life in my hands really? How in control was I if the universe could simply wipe all my efforts out? In time, these unanswered questions bred a resentment. I began to ask, “Why me?” What had I done to deserve this? This brought me to Lesson 1: Living is like driving on a long, winding path in blinding fog. You cannot see too far, so don’t assume which turns you’ll take. You never know to where the climb leads. This book is about my journey after the road ahead of me took an unexpected bend. My purpose is to share with you, dear reader, the circumstances I lived through and the wonderful things I learnt about myself and about life. This is not a hero’s tale. I don’t consider myself to have achieved anything extraordinary. Many have pulled through far worse than my ordeal with fewer privileges than I am blessed with. Neither is this a self-help guide, not a how-to-survive-cancer pamphlet. My purpose is not to preach or teach, but to narrate. I decided to write this book in the hope that upon reading it, the audience may find that their fears are not solely theirs and my learnings need not to be solely mine. If this book resonates even justwith you, dear reader, it will have been a fructified venture. I hope you enjoy the lessons my tumour taught me. To New Awakenings.