AMAZING ACHIEVERS

How Does an Optimistic Mindset Change My Tomorrow?

by Olivia Garver

I don’t necessarily remember having cancer. I was so young that the hospital visits were just a blur of doctors shining flashlights in my face and getting wheeled away from my parents in a hospital bed. Although I don’t remember this time in my life fully, it’s still a huge part of my identity, and it affects me every day. I would never sit here and tell you that cancer is a good thing, or that I’m glad I had it as a child, but I will tell you I wouldn’t change whether or not it happened. It altered my life in terrible ways that a child should never experience, but it also altered my life in beautiful ways, giving me a perspective that most children growing up don’t get.

In order to give you a better understanding of how it has affected my life, I should tell you the story first. When I was one, my mom noticed a strange white glare in my left eye, and was immediately alarmed. I was taken to the doctor, and then to another, and then to another, and then my parents were finally told that their baby had retinoblastoma. This is a cancer that forms on the retina in one’s eye. My parents were given an impossible choice, to give me chemotherapy, or to have my eye removed all together. They chose the safest option, which was to have my eye removed. So, when I was a baby, my left eye was removed and replaced with a prosthetic, leaving me blind in that eye.

Brian, Olivia & Sally Garver

As a result of having a prosthetic left eye, my eyes look different from everyone else. My left eye doesn’t move when the right one does, and my left eyelid is almost always about half closed. The truth is, the hospital visits and the cancer wasn’t what made things so hard for me, it was the way that people reacted to seeing someone who looked different from them. Elementary school was a disaster of other kids always asking me what’s wrong with my eye, which eventually progressed to getting picked on, to being bullied about it. From my perspective, there were two ways I could have responded to the hand of cards I was dealt in life. One way is that I could hate the world, never look anyone in the eyes, and sulk for the rest of my life. I could wish to look different, I could wish to be someone else, and I could listen to the cruel words I have heard, and despise myself. But that’s not what I did. At a very young age I realized that I had a different perspective on life that I knew other kids didn’t have. I understood people’s differences. It forced me to learn to look past other’s physical appearances, in the same way I desperately wanted them to look past mine. As I got older, I started to realize how lucky I was to be alive. I had miraculously survived a deadly disease, which is a blessing that many others who have suffered with cancer didn’t get. With these insights, I decided that I was going to choose a positive outlook on life; an optimistic perspective. Why would I sulk about being a cancer survivor? Why would I hate the way I look when all it does is prove what I have been through? The mindset I made a conscious choice to have is summed up in that if I can go through cancer, as well as bullying, and still come out with lessons learned and a positive attitude, there are no challenges that I can’t face.

I have never let cancer, my facial differences, or the hate of others get in the way of what I want to do in life. I didn’t let it affect me when I started high school, I didn’t let it affect me when I joined the golf team, or when our golf team went on to win state. I didn’t let it affect me when I auditioned for our school’s musical, or when I was cast as the lead. This mindset completely changes my tomorrow. It changes it because with this mindset, I know I will not let cancer affect or define my future. I won’t let it affect me when I go to college and make new friends, I won’t let it affect me when I’m searching for a job, I won’t let it change what I want to do with my life. It’s hard to turn having cancer around to being optimistic about the future, but my life now, and the entire rest of my life would be completely different if I didn’t.

2022 Shawnee Optimist Club Projects

2022 Shawnee Optimist Club Essay Contest Winners: 1st Place - Olivia Garver, LCC 2nd Place - Brianna Ridenour, Shawnee HS 3rd Place - Nicholas Chambers, LCC

2022 Shawnee Optimist Club Oratorical Contest Winners: 1st Place - Sofia Bravo, Shawnee Middle 2nd Place - Riya Naroor, Shawnee Middle 3rd Place - Georgianna Damschroder, Shawnee Middle