Tuesday, October 2, 2007, 09:53 AM EST
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General]
Step 10.5
My ear-to-ear grin continued as I jumped into my jeep liberty and strolled back towards my hotel. Confidence firmly in hand, the rest of my day was spent pricing various apartments around the Austin area. The following morning on my way to grab a bite to eat my phone began to ring. Hello, this is Preston. Mr. Presnell hello this is blah blah from Dell, and we would like you to know that your interview went “extremely” well and we would like to extend an offer. Just like that, three airports, multiple cranberry juice and crackers, one rendition of the itzy bitsy spider, and a quick jolt of real life, I had completed my steps and achieved the goal I set out to earn.
Over the next couple of days, which turned into weeks, negotiations were being laid out. To sum it up and to save my possible future employer the embarrassment, I will just tell you that the figures did not match up to my expectations. Once again, do not get me wrong, after all, I am fresh off the boat and should not be turning my nose up at ample opportunities to work, but in saying that…A man has gotta eat! I spent the month ahead reviewing my options and weighing out my finances compared to the uh huh… figures they offered. As much as I wanted to move away and embrace this new chapter of my life, titled “Ode to the Hot Air, it just wasn’t going to happen. God had a different plan for me.
The Big Man’s Plan B
So here I sit, seven hundred and fifty dollars (now reduced to six hundred) in debt from a trip that I thought would present me with a sturdy career. While weighing my options, I found work landscaping for an old friend of mine who buys and sells houses. It is the kind of work many would consider “labor intense,” but I loved it. Being outside in the summer heat not only gave me a chance to work on my stunning tan ha, but also a chance to clear my mind and readjust my goals.
While laying pine straw, (sometimes 90+ bales a week), cutting grass, edging, blowing, and all that good stuff, my mind would always go towards Life Linkage. I MUST BE A FOOOOOOOL. Here I am, a college grad, reverting back to my high school days as a landscaper, while my newly founded organization was screaming out to me. This is it Preston, this is the reason God put you through six months of agonizing chemotherapy, countless doctor visits, and a missed childhood. His plan all along was for me to make a change, and in order to make that change I had to be a direct example of the product I was trying to promote. I’m not saying that I am “the one” but I am saying that I understand the vast importance of having a world where every single one of “us” can come together.
Ok, I’ll put it this way, screw the sugar coating. At age, 10.5 I was hit with an alien sounding word to me at the time “Hodgkin’s” aka CANCER. While many of the average kids my age were out enjoying childhood luxuries like playing ball, riding bikes, eating junk food, going to school, and being…..NORMAL, I was stuck sitting in a dreary hospital room in a circle surrounded by other children who felt the same way. We sat there, staring at the hospital-white walls with needles in our arm and poison flowing through our bodies. This was not how the other kids and myself envisioned our youthful days going. Depressed yet? It gets worse… While the poison raced through my frail veins, already torn from a treatment I received a week before, I was forced to occupy my time for hours on end. Old VHS movies, books, laughter from mom and dad, and hopes of going to Bass Pro after treatment was the only thing that kept me from losing my mind. When the day eventually ended, I knew that come next week I would be in the very same situation, morale slowly fading. It just was not fair damnit! Why me? What did I do? Who did I piss off? Moreover, Why am I the only one?? These questions accompanied by down right anger plagued my adolescent brain constantly and in turn transformed a ten-year-old boy into a grown man in a matter of days.
Now, take a moment to render your thoughts and wipe away your tears. My intention is not for you to feel sorry for us poor little cancer kids. However, my intentions are for you to see how one simple website has the potential of answering all the questions of the recently diagnosed ten year old, sixteen year old, and twenty year old, forty year old, and 70 year old. The answer is…We are not alone…. There are others, who have traveled the dark roads of a cancer journey and survived to tell their story. A few strokes of the keyboard and one click of the mouse will lead persons of the cancer community worldwide to a world created by us and for us. This is my vision people; these are my dreams, hopes, and aspirations. We are not alone! Say, it again….We are not alone! One more damn time….We are not alone! For whatever reason God or faith alone chose us to face the impossible. He chose us to live a not so normal life and he chose us to be the living proof of human will power.
So here I am, waiting for others to come around, waiting for this project to catch on. In the words of Corey Smith
“I gotta foot in the door
One in the rain
I’m standing on the thresh hold of fortune and fame
Out on a limb
I took that great leap of faith
Though I might crash and burn
But I might fly away
Who knows…
There’s no telling what tomorrow holds”
“I could be shut in or shut out
I guess it all depends,
On you
Whether you think I’m cool
But I’m no Hank Williams”
To Continue…
