Like any young adult, Suleika had hoped for a successful career and love. After her remission, her definition of success changed. Such a close brush with her mortality made her aware that life is much more than what she had envisioned at twenty-two, before she got sick. She found herself at a junction where she needed to relearn how to integrate into regular life again. However, Suleika discovered that she did not know how to come back to a life without cancer – the kingdom of healthy people. She got an outpouring of letters and emails of support from people from various parts of the country.Īfter three years of painful struggle, her cancer finally went into remission.
The New York Times published her blogs under the column Life, Interrupted. After her anger at the unfairness of her fate dissipated some, she took up writing blogs geared towards young adults suffering from cancer. During those stays, Suleika felt she had limited time left on this earth so she decided to do something meaningful while she still could. Thus began a tremendously painful journey of chemotherapy, clinical trials, a bone marrow transplant, waiting for biopsy results, and interminably long stays at the cancer ward in hospitals.
When the diagnosis came down like a heavy anvil, she was, understandably, shattered. It started with an intolerable itch all over her body, followed by mouth sores and extreme fatigue. It is learning to embrace the people I love now instead of protecting against a future gutted by their loss.” (P.312) This passage from Suleika Jaouad’s inspiring memoir, Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted, resonated so much with me that I had to write it down.Īt the tender age of twenty-two, when Suleika’s peers were looking forward to their futures, she was diagnosed with leukemia with a 35 percent chance of survival. It is learning to confront ghosts and to carry what lingers. Healing is figuring out how to coexist with the pain that will always live inside of you, without pretending it isn’t there or allowing it to hijack your day. But I’m learning that’s not how it works.
It meant putting your pain behind you, leaving it in the past. “I used to think healing meant ridding the body and heart of anything that hurt.
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