I consider myself incredibly lucky, privileged almost, — as no one from my immediate family and close friends had a brush with cancer. It was always a fear of mine: when I was a kid, cancer diagnosis unequivocally spelled death. But in the past decades, scientific breakthroughs in treatment and prevention, advances in screening technology and the dramatic rise of awareness about the disease means that what was one considered a death sentence can now be treated or maintained. That, to me, is a true miracle, and a cause worth celebrating. Another reason I’m fighting is to combat an almost paralyzing stage fright. Even after years of competitive swimming in school, the idea of performing in front of an audience remains awfully uncomfortable for me — and I feel there’s hardly a more appropriate way to overcome it once and for all than by confronting it on the boxing rink. Finally, there’s this pervasive gender stereotype that I’ve inherited culturally and societally. And that’s the idea that women are weak and fragile, and that fighting certainly isn’t the type of activity that suits them. Well, I believe that being strong and powerful is the most feminine quality of all, so I’m eager to shatter this particular stereotype on November 2.