Spreading HOPE & HAPPINESS at ASU

I was contacted by Dr. Compton, a few weeks ago via email and asked if I would be willing to speak to her eager young students at ASU about my journey with cancer.  I was terrified to do it, I can't imagine what I could say or do to help these students who are interested in medicine--I agreed to do it, I was listening to my heart on this request.
Gratefully I did listen to the still small peaceful voice inside of me and said yes.  Yesterday was the day, I really had nothing prepared, every time I started to write notes it was silly, I thought "why am I writing anything down? this is my life, I've lived it, I've felt it, and I'm surviving it"  Eric, being the public speaker said to me "you need to write some bullet points of what you want to cover in case you forget".....I did, but only had to refer to them one time and that was to  quote something I had written on my blog about a night I was  desperate for some relief.
I actually loved being able to speak with these students and Dr. Compton.  I did have a hiccup, my slide show that I thought was in order of dates was not--so it made it difficult to  show them my journey through a power point with pictures from my blog and FB.  When I realized this was not going to work I did the best I could and spoke from my heart.
I never thought I would be able to speak for an hour and 15 minutes, but I did it--I saw one student asleep so pretty sure what I had to say did not resignate with all of them.  Eric came to support me, and my son in law Brian happened to be on campus he too came to support me, it was good to have them there--Brian is always so good about going out of his way for things like this, I love him for so many things, this is just another.
Just a note about Dr. Compton, she is a lovely beautiful woman inside and out.  Those students hopefully, already know what a gem of a women she is, in addition to being a great Doctor, mentor and instructor.  I felt at peace, I felt strong and most of all I felt BRAVE.

Dr. Compton and I.  She is so gracious and kind

Some of the students--the girls are sisters from the Ivory Coast...One just got accepted to Medical School the other headed off for a fellowship at Harvard.  Full Scholarship, such smart lovely girls. These are our future Doctors

Eric loved speaking with them in French