Humans of Brockport
“I have a younger sister. She was born with Retinoblastoma, cancer of the eyes. By the time she was 18 months old she was totally blind. My mom noticed my sister had cat eyes, where the light would reflect off of them. The doctors told us they would have to enucleate the eyes, or she wouldn’t live. She’s a rockstar, she excelled in everything she could do. We were raised as only children, total opposites in our life experiences and interests. I loved sports, anything with a ball in my hand and I was good to go. Lisa loved the arts, the theatre. Mom used to give us 15 minutes each, 15 minutes of what Lisa wanted to do and 15 minutes of what I wanted to do.”
“My senior year of high school my sister came home for fall break at college and my parents told us my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. They caught it early on and a double mastectomy removed all of it, no radiation, no chemo. That was a blessing. As bad as it was her having breast cancer, seeing her go through chemo and radiation would’ve been detrimental. My sister went back to school, I was a senior in high school, my brother in 7th grade. It was really just me and my brother. I blocked a lot of it from my memory. I don’t remember a lot from that year. Family dinner was an every night thing, no matter the situation we sat down to eat dinner. In those couple months that didn’t happen. All the time I was handed a credit card, just get my brother out of the house. Since my mom was diagnosed in 2017, she’s been in remission since 2018. She has put up a wall that she’s doing good, nobody really knows what’s going on in her head. I do the same, no one ever really knows what’s going on with me.”
“I was the oldest child, I have a younger brother and sister; I was like another parent to them. My parents split during high school. I dove into so many things to find my independence. Student council, student newspaper, played basketball, I swam, ran track and field. I did so much I think because it was my outlet from all of my family drama. During all of this being the oldest sibling I was like the extra parent, helping them through everything. I went to college right when my parents were splitting. I had to work through being away and not being there. Internally I started to deal with getting out on my own, separating myself from family. Starting my own path. My own journey. Realizing it was about more about myself and not fixing what was going on back home. That was where I found my journey. I think all of us learn a lot from our families, our parents are human too. It’s your choice to find your own journey.”
