Oh, the places you’ll go! YSC conference, Enquirer article

My friend Jocelyn from Pink Ribbon Girls and I enjoyed dinner in Atlanta with almost 20 others Saturday night.

This weekend, I had the honor and privilege of attending the 10th Annual Conference for Young Women Affected by Breast Cancer in Atlanta. The event, sponsored by the Young Survival Coalition and Living Beyond Breast Cancer, attracted more than 900 women from around the nation.

My friend Ashley Oehler (who took this lovely picture) were among four recipients of the Pink Ribbon Girls’ (PRG) Anquionette Williams Memorial Scholarship. As you might remember, Anquionette was a friend and fellow PRG member who passed away this year. It was so fun hanging out with my PRG friends, seeing other people I’ve met both online and offline, and meeting so many other fabulous women there. Thanks to PRG for sponsoring my trip!! If you want to learn more about PRG, visit www.pinkribbongirls.org.

I have so much to share; it’ll take several posts to cover it. The first session I attended was “Creative Coping: Using Creative Arts to Heal Body, Mind and Soul.”  The presenter Edna Bacon, an art therapist, began by talking about a Dr. Seuss book On Beyond Zebra, about creating your own letter of the alphabet. We were asked to tear up pieces of construction paper to create our own letter and share what it meant to us.

It was so powerful to hear women expressing themselves. There were tears and laughs. One very young woman used her piece to demonstrate all the ways she is different: being young with breast cancer, gay and deaf. Another woman spelled out the F-word to describe her relationship with cancer.

My creation evolved into a 3-D “letter”with pieces of paper sticking up all over the place. I shared that it represented how cancer has been an upward battle, but my life has been exploding with blessings. That includes getting to go to the conference, exciting developments with my book and my improving health and opportunities to contribute to that.

Another blessing was my first big piece of publicity for my book: a story in the Sunday edition of  the Cincinnati Enquirer READ.

The talk at the conference reminds me of another Dr. Seuss book, The Places You’ll Go, which speaks to me these days and hope gives you boost, too:

You’ll look up and down streets. Look ‘em over with care.
About some you will say, “I don’t choose to go there.”
With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet,
you’re too smart to go down any not-so-good street.

And you may not find any
you’ll want to go down.
In that case, of course,
you’ll head straight out of town.

It’s opener there
in the wide open air.

Out there things can happen
and frequently do
to people as brainy
and footsy as you.

And then things start to happen,
don’t worry. Don’t stew.
Just go right along.
You’ll start happening too.

OH!
THE PLACES YOU’LL GO!