I Am A Mere Mortal
I used to think that the phrase, “there’s never a dull moment,” was my destiny. My life seems to move forward at the speed of light, and just when I think I’ve gotten to a great place and things are leveling off, another curve ball comes my way. Like many women, I’ve created this facade that I can handle anything. These days, I’m just about reaching my limit, and it’s time to admit that I am a human being, not superwoman.
I got breast cancer at 36 and, after I recovered, supported my mom in her fight, which ended with her death when I was 39. As I jumped back into my busy life taking care of my husband and 5 children, the long-avoided issues that I had managed to push down deep inside me somewhere for 30 years crept to the forefront. Welcome to “mid-life crisis” or, as I like to call it, a time of “awakening.”
An awakening is not a bad thing, and all of my hard work to get through it resulted in discovering my life’s passion—being a radio jock. That led me to my own daily talk show, What’s Up with Missy, on a local radio station. Not a dull moment, but certainly a time of leveling off. That is, until I was diagnosed with a recurrence of breast cancer 3 months ago.
But superwoman rose to the occasion once again, forging through radiation 5 days a week for 7 weeks. Five days after my last radiation treatment, I was let go from the station. Top that off with the physical and mental side effects of being thrown into “acute menopause” as part of my breast cancer treatment and it’s anyone’s guess how I can keep my head above water.
So how do you go from being superwoman to mere mortal? It’s not easy, but sometimes we have no choice. The dull moment comes when we are forced to be still and ask those around us for help in navigating our way back to our hectic lives.