The return 🚀— My Personal Journey

Marian Villa
Nov 6 · 3 min read

When someone asks me what has meant these about 2 years of my life, my response has been like 2 lives in one. No one really prepares you for what it means to go through a cancer diagnosis and give birth at the same time. The important thing is what I learned.

What did I learn?
I learned that it is important to trust your group of specialists and choose them carefully, that routine health exam is a priority. That appointment should be made today, not tomorrow and that you should be rigorous with your health.

What helped me to remain standing despite the diagnosis received, is meditation. An active and “calm” mind helps in many life decisions that require your concentration.

What worked for me:
1. I didn’t stop working, studying, or contributing to the community. Feeling useful and moving made me not focus my attention on what will happen, but TODAY.
2. Find tranquility, getaway and find a place where you connect with nature, and the here and now. Pick you up with the people that are important to your life.
3. Charge you with energy. For me, this source is the sea, the water.
4. Meditate, as I love water I practice it under the shower every morning.
5. Learn to heal, understand that it is part of a process, eat well, sleep, sunbathe, receive and give smiles.
6. Learn and unlearn. Understand what works for you, and what doesn’t.
7. Draw a plan, understand what your priority is today and how you can focus your energies to make it happen.
8. Planning, thinking beyond today puts you in a set-up that everything is fine, and that it will not only last until tomorrow. The future is something you cannot control, but it is worth dreaming years ahead.

My life restarted on September 1, 2019, and from this moment I set out to complete my goals this year:

1. I dreamed for many years to attend Grace Hopper Celebration, today I can say that I succeeded.
2. I dreamed of giving my first international talk in English, today I can say I am ready and the year is not over until I succeed.
3. I dreamed of climbing PionerasDev to another level and closing projects that I had in mind. 2020 is a reality where we hope to impact many more lives. And this begins with the great joy of LIF — Fellowship Leaders in Innovation of the Royal Academy of Engineering. I won this honor.
4. My great project of being a mother, I succeeded, and today Rafa is a happy child who grows day by day and teaches us with peace and smiles what is “A great test of love”.
5. My health requires follow-up, but today I am well, I overcame this crisis and will continue because I am clear about my purpose.

Thank you for being part of my past, my present, and my future.

Marian Villa
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