Why am I getting in the ring to fight? The answer is simple. Because I can. I am fighting for me, because this is going to be the hardest thing I have ever undertaken. I am fighting for EVERYONE else around me, because we have all been affected in some way by this terrible disease, and the only way we can beat it is by coming together. I am fighting for the people who can’t fight anymore, and the loved ones that we have lost, because they have shown me what true fighting means. I am fighting because cancer is EVERYONES fight and I refuse to let it win. I refuse to be idle and not try my hardest to make a change in this world.

I am fighting because the pain of training won’t ever come close to touching the pain of loss. Cancer robs us of our best friends, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, grandparents, and children. The pain of loss is indescribable, and losing someone without saying goodbye is devastating. If the money I raise and the work I put in is able to give you just one more day one more moment with your loved one – one hug, one more laugh, one more time to tell them you love them, then I have won this fight.

Mary Oliver got this one right when she said:
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

That’s all we have. One absolutely beautiful, wild, precious, short life. Nothing is ever going to be perfect about it. No moment, no journey. But we have been handed this life, this gift, this moment in time right now before us, and we don’t have any idea how it’s going to turn out or what is going to happen next. We have the opportunity, and OBLIGATION to make it what we want, and take none of it for granted.

I have no idea how this journey is going to end up. All I know is that I am going to take each moment in front of me, and I am going to take a step out of my comfort zone. I am going to leap, when I don’t feel ready, because the moments worth remembering don’t happen when we are ready, they happen when we dive in head first, unafraid of failing, unafraid of the outcome.

If there is something I know for sure, it’s that this is going to be hard. Like really really hard. I am going to get knocked down. I am going to bleed, sweat, and cry. But I also know that I will not be afraid of the punches, I will always get back up, and I will never quit. Cancer doesn’t take a round off, so I will never quit.