About Me - The Rest of My Life

Ok, so the last post was me rattling on about a really boring and slightly annoying and worrying hospital visit.

But I'm not all about the zebra-print ribbon. In the same way a man with breast cancer or a woman with melanoma or a child with leukaemia isn't just their cancer before their diagnosis, a teen who is being tested for NETs doesn't suddenly become a NET kid.

Before the pathology results two weeks ago, I was a 16-year-old girl sharing a birthday with my mum on April 13th each year. 

I was a 4-year-long member of the Hallé Youth Choir, a 5-year-long student at the Junior Royal Northern College of Music (a section of the main university that is basically a Saturday school for young musicians aged 8-18). I was going for my grade 8 exams in voice and cello next term, and my grade 5 exam in piano.

I was a Ventolin user, prone to chest infections and general pain. I was an Apple user, with my iPods and MacBook Pro and iPhone 4S and a healthy collection of out-of-date Apple products.

I was a tomato-lover and ravioli-hater, mostly vegetarian but partial to fish. 

I was a songwriter and composer, with an eclectic musical taste ranging from Gregorian chant, Tallis and Dowland, through Razorlight, Pärt and McTell, through Coldplay, Radin and Gershwin, through The Crests, Ella Fitzgerald and Presley, to R. Kelly, a little tiny bit of One Direction and Enrique Iglesias.

I was a lover of languages, having passed my GCSE Spanish with 94.6% in Year 9 (3rd Year, 8th Grade etc.) and getting fluent in French as quick as I can.

I was an animal lover and aspiring veterinary oncologist, with my 4-year-old working cocker spaniel Tillie and her 5.5-month-old puppy, Charlie.

I was the girl who would be sitting her GCSE Maths in the first term of college because of a pesky thing called Having Appendicitis (also known as World's Most Drastic Way of Getting Out of Exams).

I was occasionally shy, often crackers, fun-loving, in love with a guy who doesn't fancy me in the slightest (I mean, what the heck, who isn't?), excitable, creative, innovative, thoughtful, nuts and basically a teenager.

And screw it, I still am. And I am determined to make the most of the weeks before the test results come back.

If they come back positive, I know I'll have done some great things before I get plunged into the world of Having Cancer.

If they come back negative, I'll have had a great summer.