Today marks the end of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It’s also the last day that Kelly, an inspirational breast cancer survivor, will be working with me. She got a job at Nasa just a few freeway exits down from here. I hate Nasa now because they are stealing her away from me. Except for whoever it was that invented the freeze dried food. It would be very hard to hate that person.
Kelly has saved my sanity here at work for the last year. Seriously, without her there would have been days I came home with enough stress to fill the house, pour out into the streets and flood most of downtown San Jose. Instead, I just flooded the streets in our immediate neighborhood. This has been ESPECIALLY true for the last month or so as a series of events played out that really reminded me what it is I look for in a friend. Kelly is without a doubt, somebody I proudly consider a friend. She love me EVEN THOUGH I drop F-bombs, and am loud, and opinionated, and curt, and vain sometimes overly confident. She has reminded me how wonderful it is to have a true, genuine friendship. The fact this has happened in a building full of people I’d never associate with if not for the fact that I’m PAID to do so has been a fantastic bonus.
People like Kelly should be a reminder to us how important it is, as women, to get a mammogram EVERY YEAR. Get a pap smear EVERY YEAR. I know that these things are uncomfortable, and sometimes painful, and can be embarrassing, and scarry… but it is SO important. Kelly is a survivor. And in some weird twist of serendipity, her surviving saved my sanity.
I’ll miss you, Kelly. Don’t worry though, I’ll remind you how much you miss me in emails. Daily. Sometimes hourly. Probably more. 😉