What has been the best experience for you sharing your story of being a cancer survivor?

I was one year out from treatments and I was speaking at the local Relay for Life.  I spoke at a  survivor walk back at home.  Leading up to it, my mom was the speaker before me.  She spoke from the perspective of a caregiver.  I spoke from the perspective of a survivor.  I was joking with my mom that I knew she was going to cry during her speech.  And the whole time, I knew I wasn’t going to cry.  

It was completely the opposite.  My mom did the whole speech just fine.  And then I got up there and my first words were “I was 17 when I was diagnosed with cancer.”  I balled for 5 minutes.  That was the moment it came full circle for me.  And I remember standing there and telling my mom I couldn’t finish my speech.  I kept asking her to finish my speech for me.  And my mom told me that I would regret not reading it. She reminded me that I could finish my speech.  My mom stood up there with me.  My family was out in the crowd recording it.  I finished my speech. I think I cried all the way through me reading it and I’m not sure how much of it the crowd heard, but I finished it.