A Chat with The Woman With An Expiration Date (Alaska 2013)

I just had a meeting with a lady that doesn’t have long to live, she was the age of my parents. It was by mere chance that I ran into her. I was smoking a cigarette and drinking a Michelada concerned about a girl that had not arrived to the meeting spot we had designated the night before. However, I’m very glad she didn’t because this never would’ve happened. As I held on to my cigarette, 1 out of my 20 left before hopefully quitting smoking forever, she arrived. She dropped her margarita on the counter and asked if I could share one with her. As she asked, her jacket discovered remnants of radiation on her neck. I agreed, even though that meant I was a cigarette closer to quitting. We started making small talk about smoking and quitting. All of a sudden, the look on her face changed and she started talking to my about the thyroid cancer that had stricken her not too long ago. I asked if she was fine now, remaining hopeful but she quickly shot my hopes down by saying that she’s dying and dying quick. I listened attentively as she told me that the doctors had told her straight up that there was no cure and that there wouldn’t be a cure as long as she was alive. She told me that the cancer was not related to her smoking (which she had started when she was 10 years old) so she might as well enjoy one or two while she still had the time. She told me about her children, how her 9 and 11 year olds are boy scouts and how she took these 3 months off from treatment to take them on vacation to Aruba, Atlantis and Alaska (the 3 As as she called it). “It’s weird,” she said. “Knowing that your children and husband will soon carry on without you.” I tried to change the subject, asking her where she was from. I found the conversation incredibly interesting but it was clear that she was going into a dark place. She asked me where I was from and I answered Mexico City. Unabatedly, this sent her over the edge. She looked at me glossy eyed and I could feel my eyes swelling up. She mentioned that a great friend of hers had just buried her father there. It seemed like her luck had just gone down the drain during the last few months. We continued talking about what her outlook on life has been recently. She told me that she had asked the doctors that should she continue with treatment, what the odds were of them finding a cure. The doctors told her she had none. So what she said next really struck me. She decided to undergo trials that wouldn’t make her better but that would contribute to science and future thyroid cancer patients. She told me that the past trial nearly killed her. I found this altruistic act to be incredibly inspiring. She was giving the little health she had so people would not have to deal with the pain she was going through, even if it meant dying in the process. She appreciated the fact that she’d had these few months to “make some memories” with her family. However, I saw deep in her eyes that now that this oasis of time is quickly coming to an end, she’s scared. Scared of the world continuing without her, scared of the pain that is to come and remorseful about the way she carried her life. We finished our cigarettes and very abruptly, she said goodbye and left me standing in my spot for a few minutes; shocked by the amount of information and revelations that I had received from a person whose existence I wasn’t aware of 10 minutes ago. As I stare at the seemingly infinite lengths of the same ocean millions before me have looked upon, I can’t help but reflect the luck in the cards I’ve been dealt. In my short 21 years I have done and conquered more ground than more than 60% of humans in there lives. I have looked upon the great talents of hundreds of musicians, I have circumnavigated the world and made thousands of friends. I have a family whose health is not seemingly deteriorating, I have the ability to talk to people and have them trust me easily and I have the drive and health to make my life mean something. With my next film I want to speak out to people that are troubled when they really shouldn’t be. I want to shed some light on the meaningless problems we encounter everyday and inspire people to change the negative and tedious aspects of their lives. Our time on earth is limited, we aren’t going to live forever no matter how hard we try. It’s up to us to take the cards we’re given and choose to follow the rules that people have set before us or to try and make our lives amazing. The short moment I had with this lady reassured me that the only things we have in life are the moments we create with the people we love the most. All I can say is that tonight I’m going to tell me parents and brother that I love them, hold them closer than I ever have before and sleep soundly, knowing that I’m incredibly lucky. If I were to die suddenly tomorrow, I feel like I wouldn’t have regrets. Everything that I’ve been through has made me stronger, every friendship that has been broken has allowed me to sift through the bad people and made me found the great ones and every experience I’ve been through, especially in the last year and a half has been nothing short of epic. I’m thankful for so many things right now it’s hard to put them on paper. I feel like the luckiest person in the world right now and so should you if you have the eyes to read this, the sensibility to let it sink in and the drive to say NO, I am going to fight through the hardships in life and emerge victorious, happy and satisfied.