Who are on the way to being just friends.
This weekend was the Young adult Conference at Dana Farber and the first meeting of the Boston tribe for First Descents. So it was a sort of cancer filled weekend. I say that I realize it sounds completely odd to put on paper but the other awesome part about it was that it was an extremely positive weekend or actually long day.
The day started somewhat early with a drive over to Dana Farber. I registered and got my stuff, and found a buddy from group. It was really fun to see a number of people that I knew and had chatted with so it felt a little like a reunion... Since we all don't make it to every group. The day started with a key note speaker and then it had 2 breakout sessions.
The first session I went to was about mindfulness and mediation. This isn't exactly a new topic for me because of all the yoga action but it was interesting in this context. And realizing / being reminded how much time we spend thinking ahead to things and how trying to predict good or bad isn't the best way to go. Which I agree with and it's always a good thing to have my attention brought back to. We did some walking and seated mediation. And it was nice.
We then got a complementary lunch, which was delicious. And songs from a group from Berkely College of Music. Which meant there was a lot of really interesting arrangements of pop songs to violin and gutair. We also pushed a bunch of tables together and had a good visit talking about everyday and cancer related thing. It was so cool to talk to awesome people and have it feel normal. It was like we were kids at school.
After lunch we listened the couple that started the Andruizzi foundation, who also is a former Patriots player (pretty neat) he battled cancer and then started this foundation to help people pay bills during and after treatment.
The final seminar was about dealing with uncertainty. And it was an ok seminar. I felt that because the panelist were all in similar stages of their cancer experience it maybe focused a lot of the medical aspects of uncertainty, and didn't do a lot to assuage my fears. In fact the discussion made me more nervous. But it was still a good topic. In general, I could have appreciated a Better focus on the topic.
After the conference I hoped in the car and drove up to Nahat. Nahat for those playing the distance game is an island on the north shore.
Next to the beach. The event was the first Tribe Event for the Boston First Decents group.
FD is a group that runs trips for young adult cancer patients and survivors. And they send people to do adventure stuff, rock climbing, surfing, kayaking. For a week. This group is an off shoot of that, and they are trying to get more stuff going in the Boston area.
The people I met there were REALLY awesome and it was so great to meet se other peps like me, that are doing there thing and dealing with cancer. And being awesome. A number of the awesome people from Dana farber were there. And it was amazing to talk to people in a house, and not a hospital setting. It ended up being a really long day but the sign of a long day is you only notice how tired you are until you get in. The car.
That's what happened, so I boogied home, had a final date with my couch and called it a night.
No comments:
Post a Comment