tea_and_ink | I am a poster girl with no poster

There's this lady I've known for a while now, and she's always wearing little hats to cover up the effects of the chemo, not that she's was covering the fact that she needs chemo, just what it does to her. Anyway, today she comes in and places her order to another waitress, when I bring her breakfast it hits me, people were looking at her not because of the chemo this time round, but because of what she wouldn't let it do to her.

She's foregone her usual little hats and this morning wears a bubblegum pink wig. When I ask her about it she answers "well, dear. What's one to do? I'm still losing hair, and did you notice how cold it was this morning? You know? I'm pretty sure it's not going away this time around, so I said what the hell, cancer may be killing me, but it's not taking my life away from me"

I cried a little. You know, in my line of work, at the clinic or the institute, even at the coffee shop I'm constantly exposed to the shortcomings of human nature, my heart has been broken so many times and so often I'm beginning to think I keep coming back out of mere masochism. Either that or I'm just way too naive for this career. But just when I'm about to give up, when becoming jaded and cynical seems like the only way to come out of it relatively OK, something like this happens and then it hits me, it's also a part of human nature that need to never give up, that seemingly tireless force that pushes us onwards, and when faced with that, it's the idea of losing my faith in mankind what makes me feel naive.

There are many things wrong with this world of ours (oh, so many), but there are also so many beautiful little shards of light worth fighting for, and this woman today has come to my rescue, yet again, and has showed me the sheer power of the human spirit, has reminded why is it that I believe in people and chose to do what I do.