Thrills, pills and a headscarf

When I was learning my dodgy version of Spanish I found a phrase I really connected with. "Tener ganas" was more than it's loose translation of to want something. It was like a desire, a feeling inside of craving a thing. At least that's how it was described to me. I loved it. I didn't just want to go to the pool when it was 38 degrees, I craved it. I didn't just want  to go out dancing, I desired it. My friend and I loved it so much we incorporated it into our bastardised Spanglish vocabulary with sentences like "I've got ganas to...". It really meant more to us than to just want. Language is a wonderful thing. I'm a geek and enjoy the affect language can have when it comes to communicating a point or painting a colourful story. So, yup, I'm blogging about language today. Geek away. As you probably know I inadvertently joined the cancer club almost three years ago now. It was a giant oops in my life but here I am in a club nobody ev...

I think it's fair to say I'm a social butterfly. I'm like the mother of social butterflies. It's not that I don't like some time to myself, but I really get my energy from getting out and spending time around others.  If I didn't look so much like my mum's family, this trait would easily back up my brother's adoption argument. Much like the poor ugly duckling, I think I'm the social butterfly accidentally born into the keep-to-ourselves ladybird family.  Needless to say the amount of time I need to socialise to stay energetic and happy in life is much higher than others close to me. It's also something that terrified me when I found out I had cancer. I remember telling a friend early on that I was terrified of going into treatment because I didn't want to become boring to be around. She assured me she thought it was an unlikely outcome but I remained unconvinced. This was a big barrier for me to have to face and what I've reali...

"Tired of trying to cram her sparkly, star-shaped self into society's beige square holes, she chose to embrace her ridiculous awesomeness and shine like the freaking supernova she was meant to be." My aunt posted this quote months ago and I just had to save it, knowing it was exactly what I want to say in this post! This post is probably the most important one yet for me. I've known I've wanted to write it for sometime, I've spoken to large groups of teenagers just scratching the surface on this topic and I feel like now is the time. It's the time because this is the month of my 32nd birthday (I know many of you will be shocked I'm not turning 24 again this year!), and it's also the month I'm going to start the process of losing my physical identity again as I begin back on intravenous chemotherapy. To be honest my physical identity is starting to feel so fluid I'm not really sure I know what it is anymore. It's also the tim...