Finding Joy After Cancer Turns Your Life Upside-Down

Cancer doesn’t have to stop you in your tracks. Evelyn Reyes-Beato says she was really thrown through a loop when she was diagnosed with colon cancer. Before her diagnosis, she was planning to go back to school – but the diagnoses completely threw her off track. “When I got cancer, I was like f*ck that, I’m not going to waste what’s left of my life going to school,” she says. “If I’m gonna die, I’m not gonna die at school. I’m gonna die on a beach, I’m gonna die in the Bahamas, in Paris, in Australia … somewhere, but I’m not gonna die in school.”

Eventually, Evelyn realized that she could still achieve her goals, even with cancer. She found the things that brought her joy in life – “my husband, my doggies, my brother, my family” – and kept on living for that joy.

And she ended up going back to school as well.

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