Everyone goes through the stages of grief at their own pace. When you lose a parent to cancer, especially if it happens at a young age, that feeling of loss and sadness can really linger. But that doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing. Camila Legaspi lost her mom to breast cancer when she was in high school, and told SurvivorNet that the tragedy of losing a parent as a teenager kind of defined her high school experience.
However, after she went off to college, she was able to turn that immense sense of loss that she felt into inspiration for creating.
Read More “I actually took this sadness and let it motivate me,” Camila, who is now 23, told SurvivorNet. “I learned that it’s OK to be sad sometimes. It’s OK to carry sadness with you … it’s not always a bad thing. It makes you who you are and it gives you a story to tell and it helps you teach other people to cope with their sadness.” Camila, who is one of four siblings, said that her mother was a very creative person. She said she turned to writing as an outlet, and used her mother’s creativity as a motivator. Camila went to Princeton University, and got involved with the school’s magazine. She explained that instead of thinking of the loss of her mother as something terrible that happened to her family, she has let it serve as inspiration for poetry, fiction, or whatever else she may be inspired to write. “I’ve learned to have it impact me in a positive way, and have it not just be a sad story … instead, I’m using it for a better purpose,” Camila said.
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