What Life's About

Today was not my ideal amazing day. It was colder than cold and the world just seemed to be frustrating me. I was at the point of tears just thinking about school and just wanting to go home when I found out that I wouldn't be able to be home for as long as I thought...it was just one of those cold, annoying, Rexburg kind of days. So I just came home from school and tried to do homework...worked a bit and then came home again to find myself working on more homework...my daily routine it seems.

For one of my classes I am doing an assignment where I have to find 3 research articles about a specific topic that have to do with Child Development. (For those of you that don't know...I'm a Child Development major) The topic that I chose to research is Pediatrics Oncology. I chose this because my dream job is to be a Child Life Specialist. I would work with children that have long-term or terminal illnesses. Such as kids with cancer...which is what I really want to do. Anyway...So I was looking through articles about kids with cancer and I came across this one titled "Quality of Life as Conveyed by Pediatric Patients with Cancer". It was about how researchers are finally going straight to the children in order to find out what they think about their quality of life when they are receiving treatment for terminal illnesses. The researches go and interview these children and ask them 3 questions. The questions were:

1. What makes a good day for you?

2. What makes a bad day for you?

3. Are there some things you like to do that you cannot do now?

One of the children interviewed was a 10-year-old girl. Keep that in mind 10-years old!!! At the conclusion of her interview she said, "You did not ask all of the right questions." She was asked to explain her statement and she said, "You should have asked 'How has being sick been for you?'" So the man interviewing her asked her that question and she responded,

"I would tell you that I wonder why I am the one to get leukemia but that I tell myself it is better that I get it than my little sister. She could not do this."

The fact that this little girl...10 years old...said this made me realize again why I'm going to school. Her statement made me look at my life and see what I'm doing to help someone else. To make sure that I'm living my life everyday so that I am not taking for granted what God has blessed me with.

Please...if anything...just keep this scenerio in your head the next time you want to complain about it being too cold, or that life just isn't fair. Let this little girl's response inspire you. Do something that you wouldn't normally do today. Be a little nicer, a little kinder, a little bit more like the person you have always dreamed of being. Do that today, and do that tomorrow, and soon enough you will be that!