I am still the girl with the long blond hair
It is never easy to write a first blog post, so please forgive the opus length of this email. My goal here is not to add an extra email into your very full inbox. I just thought it was about time to share my story of 2017 with you. You may not have seen or heard from me last year. This was definitely not on purpose. I started the year by moving from Costing to Finance in March which kept me busy and gave me new perspective into my career. I felt excited with the new challenges ahead and I was moving forward with my life overall.
But, sometimes life hits you with tough moments. For me the last one happened in May of last year. I was diagnosed with stage 3 Hodgkin cancer (Lymph node cancer). This last word is never easy to hear. Most people get scared, don’t know how to respond or to act. Let me relief you from any burden. This is the cancer with the best recovery rate.
When I heard the news at the hospital, I had a very “Julie like” reaction:
My analytic part kicked in very quickly: What are the statistics…;
Followed by a my organization skills: scheduling chemo session, date of being back…;
And finally the sporty me took it like everything I do: a tennis match I have to win, in this case a set of 6 games with key recovery time between each game and a lot of visualization.
Of course, I couldn’t have done this without my team: family and friends. My mom stayed with me for most of the summer, my dad flew back and forth twice per month, my friends visited me and I used the time at home to check most of the items on my to do list. I finished my last chemotherapy treatment at the end of September. By November, I got the news that I was cancer free and went back to work. I was warmly welcomed back by my colleagues. Though 2017 had been banner year for me, I learn and grow a lot from it. This journey made me even stronger.
On Saturday March 3rd, I played and won my first tennis match since over a year. It seems like a small win to any other tennis player but to me, it is a huge victory! Only 5 months after the end of my chemotherapy, I won my first tennis match. This truly empower adidas motto:
“Through sport we have the power to change lives”
I kept the story as private as I could until now because I wanted to protect myself. But after a few month back into my work, I now struggle a bit with responding to sentence such as: where were you?, I haven’t seen you since forever, why did you cut your hair,… I talk to some of you about this challenges and one of the advice I got was to share my story. This is why today I decided to address the situation.
So today is the day I am finally sharing my story, changing my profile picture and moving forward with my life. I am still the girl with the long blond hair but now I have them short. I have with me fresh new blood and extra strength.
In the future come say hi, meet me for coffee… we can talk about anything. Thank you for taking the time to read those words.