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BLACK BEAR — JANUARY PROMPT

Life is a Classroom with Lessons in Abundance

The curriculum was robust in 2024

Sandy Maximus
Black Bear
Published in
4 min readJan 7, 2025

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An empty classroom
Photo by Donald Wu on Unsplash

Who will take care of the children and Max?” Tears were unstoppable as the question lodged in my mind. A multitude of other thoughts, emotions, and questions about the future crisscrossed in my head after the radiologist delivered the diagnosis of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) in March 2024.

Facing the possibility of my mortality was not part of the outlook for 2024. It never is, is it?

The first thing the breast surgeon I initially consulted told me was that the diagnosis was not going to kill me. At the same meeting, he also said that he could give me a lift or a reduction, like a two-in-one package if I chose to do so. [Insert eye-roll emoji here].

“Yeah, what doesn’t kill me will make me stronger, dude!”

I wasn’t particularly in the mood for his humor or his sales pitch, and needless to say, I decided not to work with him based on how he made me feel. That was the start of one of the biggest lessons I’ve carried over from 2024—trust your gut instincts.

2024 stretched me in ways that I didn’t expect—definitely in ways I didn’t want—but in hindsight, in ways that I needed. For one reason or another, Murphy’s…

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Black Bear
Black Bear

Published in Black Bear

At Black Bear, we share informative articles and personal stories about struggling with mental health and substance use disorders.

Sandy Maximus
Sandy Maximus

Written by Sandy Maximus

An academic, a mother, and a wanna-be writer with interests from travel to tennis, personal stories, and life lessons.

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