I remember so many kids and happy faces, and so many amazing dancers who didn't give up. It was beyond inspiring. I was on the OPPerations committee my first year, and I spent a lot of time on the floor. I felt such a strong sense of gratitude towards these ridiculously headstrong people who chose to stand on the BJC floor for 46 straight hours to fight for a cure to pediatric cancer. I can honestly say that I looked at the world, and my school, differently after that weekend. I had no idea how much power our generation had until the total went up and my weekend came to a close.
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On the floor with my roommate, THON 2013 |
Time has passed since THON 2011 and a lot has changed for me. Someone who I love more than anything, now has a four-year-old cousin with leukemia. I hate the way that something so terrible can change the way we look at life, the way it can make someone who I love and respect feel so much pain. And yet, if a beautiful four-year-old can fight death, so can we. And she is fighting hard.
In three short years I have experienced death in many different ways. I've experienced how it affects people that I love and admire, and how it's affected me. If there could be a way to stop the death of the beginning of a generation, to see the people we love live longer than they were ever supposed to, how amazing would that be? I get to be a part of the fight for that when I am a part of THON. Nothing beats an experience like that.
We dance for life.
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