I would have never allowed that. Matter of fact, here is a, here is a little story to tell you how and why. My son came home from school one day, and he said to me, “Mom, I didn’t bring the study sheet home, and when I told my teacher, she said, ‘Well, too bad, looks like you’ll have to fail.’” And I said, “You go back and you tell your teacher that in our household that’s not an option. So let’s think of a solution, not the problem.”
I said, “What could we do?” He was 8 years old or 7 years old. He said, “Well, I could call someone from class and get the study guide.” I said, “Right, but you’re not just going to call anybody from class to get the study guide. Who is the smartest kid in class?” He goes, “India Shelly.” I said, “Let’s call her and get the study guide.”
He did. He aced the test. After he aced the test, I said, “You go up to your teacher and you tell her, failing isn’t an option in my family, and if my parents said, well, looks like I have to fail, looks like I’ll have to give up, they would both be dead because they are both cancer survivors, and they never one time said, well, bummer, looks like I’ll have to fail or give up.”
We don’t know the word give up or fail or quit,. And I tell my kids that all the time. They play in sports, they are very bright in school, and when they say, “Oh, I don’t want to do it,” or, “I can’t do it,” I’m like really, if I would have said I can’t do it, I don’t want to do it, I don’t, bummer I am going to fail, where would I be? I’d be dead.
So we are not allowed to say quit or fail. Now, you are allowed to cry, and you are allowed to get frustrated, and you are allowed to kick and scream and throw a temper tantrum and say, “I don’t like this anymore.”
Because believe me, I mean, mine was like a comedy of errors, and matter of fact, I wrote a play about it. So a comedy musical, okay, called “Standard of Care.” So it was definitely frustrating because it was, you know, constant, constant mishaps from the doctors.
But I never once said, “Okay, they screwed up and now I am going to give up.” And, and I always did feel somehow that there was a reason, a higher purpose. So I was never, it was never an option ever to let cancer kick my ass. Never, and I kick ass every day still because you can’t ever stop, because, you know, you never know, you can’t stop. You got to stay on top all the time.