Everyone has a battle to fight.

I was about to embark on my very first mole check.I was nervous and had no idea what to expect. It was much different than the first visit. A little bit more relaxed and a lot less painful-emotionally and physically. She went over my body- looking at every mole. Out of the 50+ moles that I have, she found only one that had the characteristics of Melanoma. At that point, I was relieved. She got out her tools and she preceded to do what is called a punch biopsy. She stitched me up and we chatted for about 45 minutes.  I was well researched and full of questions. I left there with a little bit of relief and a lot of anxiety. I hate all the waiting that is involved. A week is about 6 days too long.

On my way home, I was jamming. We have this FANTASTIC radio station that plays 90's music and I love listening to it! As I was pulling out of the parking lot, Ice Ice Baby came on the radio. Yes-I know...You LOVE it too. ;)  Being a mother of a four year old, I do not often "jam" in the car unless it is "Call Me Maybe". (PUKE!) So, I happily blasted that tune and began my drive home-singing loudly. I did not think once about what had just happened in the office. I didn't think about the biopsy that just took place. I didn't think about the conversation that was had. I was living in THAT moment. Reminiscing about how I had that song on a cassette tape and that was the only tape I had in my car. I would play that song over and OVER again. As I stopped at a stop light-I was still singing loudly-radio was still blaring-I just so happen to glance over and there, sat this lady in her little red BMW, GLARING at me. I realized that she could probably hear my loud music (or could hear me sing-which if you know me, you know that I am a fabulous singer) and she was probably super annoyed, but I didn't care. I wasn't going to let her take that moment away from me just because she didn't like my music or my singing. :) I earned that moment. I just spent the last hour in the Dermatologist office talking about my cancer. And at this very moment, I was not allowing myself to think about cancer, instead I was going to enjoy this moment with Vanilla Ice.

There are many times when I'm driving, at the grocery store, or any place really, where I lose my patience with people. Never did I think about what they were going through. It wasn't until that moment, in my car, did I realize that we as humans are so quick to judge. Nobody has it easy, everyone has issues. You never know what people are going through. So don't be quick to judge because everyone has a battle to fight. Some are just different than yours and we all handle it differently. At this moment in time, I chose to handle it by blaring Ice Ice Baby.

So, the next time someone pulls up next to you and is blaring their music, just look over and smile. It might just be me, celebrating my life, celebrating the five minutes alone, or enjoying a great song that allows me to not think about my cancer for 3 minutes and 46 seconds. ;)

And just in case you want to reminisce with me-here is Ice Ice Baby's Video.

~A