more than my cancer

I really do have an amazing story to share with all of you and I meant to post it before now. Parenting, however, has proven an impediment. I will tell you my terrific story (how is that for a build up?) tomorrow but for today, here are some thoughts on the BlogHer conference:

When I meet someone new, I don’t usually introduce myself by saying, “I’m Laurie and I have cancer.”

In fact, there are many people I know only casually who have no idea that I have ever been through cancer treatment, let alone that I live with metastasis. People tell me all the time how healthy I look and I take pride (somewhat irrationally, I admit) in the fact that I don’t look like a typical “cancer patient.”

Entire days often go by when the word “cancer” does not cross my lips (I would like to say that there are days when it does not cross my mind but that would be a lie). I write about living with cancer but cancer is not my life. And I like it that way.

This year, for the second time, I attended BlogHer, a conference for women bloggers (last year it was in Chicago and this year in San Francisco). The conference sold out this year and there were more than 1,000 women in attendance. For someone who spends a lot of time by myself by choice, this is both an exciting and scary concept.

Meeting that many new people at the same time is always overwhelming. However, this is compounded for me because, at BlogHer, when I introduce myself, I have to lead with the fact that I have cancer.

“I’m Laurie and I blog at Not Just About Cancer. And Mothers With Cancer. And MyBreastCancerNetwork.Com.”

You get the idea.

You can read the rest of this post at MyBreastCancerNetwork.Com.