Why vacation?

I’ve had a few people ask me, why I’m on vacation with all that’s going on in my life these days. It’s a legitimate question, but it doesn’t really have an easy answer. In some ways it’s very simple, very clear. Other ways, it’s not so simple. The simple answer, is that when you have planned a vacation, and you’ve told your 12 year old daughter about this vacation, and you haven’t told your 12 year old daughter about having cancer, it’s not easy to cancel that vacation because you have had cancer and have a ton of medical bills. How would you explain that to your 12 year old? Oh…and why didn’t you tell your 12 year old daughter about the cancer? Well, because you didn’t want to freak her out and you didn’t want her to worry about anything when there’s nothing that worrying is going to change, much less the worry of a 12 year old. So, you don’t tell your 12 year old that you have cancer, so that makes it tough to tell her that you have to cancel a vacation because you have cancer. And, well, you’ve been saving for this vacation for the last six months. It’s the first vacation you’ve planned in about 6 years, and just to be blunt about it, sometimes you need to be selfish. Sometimes you need to take care of yourself. Sometimes you need to get away and for a little while let the stress and fear and emotion all fade away. At least for a few days. So you take your 12 year old daughter and you go on vacation and you let yourself relax and unwind. Your body is still fighting, making sure that every last bit of cancer is gone, but you can breathe just a little bit easier. Your mind and soul begin to heal. That’s why vacation.

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