One gloomy winter morning, I woke up in a daze that I thought I would never experience. It was almost like a nightmare. “Allie, I have some horrific news to share.” My father weeped, as he quietly delivered the agonizing news. It was then that I knew that I was going to lose my inner self as I was about to be lead down a never ending—rocky path. It was the day my mother was diagnosed with an advanced stage of cancer.

I felt like I was being let down and I was stuck in a coma I could never escape. The road I was just starting to endure was more than an obstacle course with plenty of road blocks ahead of me. As I fiercely cried to my dad and brother, I realized then that this was only a setback to my family, and there was a way to overcome it. With the support of family and friends, I knew my fanatical mom could be a warrior to this disease.

I began taking one day at a time. Not only did my mom need the support in order to heal, the rest of my family needed the support to mentally overcome her illness. At this point, I would do whatever I could. I visited my mom in the hospital after she underwent surgery. I helped her begin to develop a new way of life, a new beginning from here on out. This included the long, one hundred meter walks through the halls of the ominous hospital. In a way, I felt as if I had been struck by the cancer monster. My mom had been not only my second half, but the rest of my family’s second half.

A year passed and my mother slowly but surely healed after the grueling treatments. The hour drives every two weeks to receive her chemotherapy treatment, the never ending days of tiresome, sick days she would lay in bed, the nerves the whole family would deal with day in and day out. Neither my family nor she could have overcome this monster solely; we had to work as a team to make it out of the dark tunnel alive. This life changing event altered my views on life itself and gave me a unique perspective towards the things that truly matter.

My character truly came out. I learned that I, myself could be more than a helping hand. I influenced one’s life and took part in dominating the deadly disease that my mother, also my best friend, encountered. After all this disease was only a hurdle on the track of life for my family and I had known there was a way to overcome anything you set your mind on with two things and two things only. Determination and support.