I’ve been staring at the headline for hours because a heading for breast cancer awareness month should be snappy and memorable. But here’s the thing. Breast cancer sucks. It’s incredibly memorable and completely the opposite of snappy. For the last 3 years I’ve tried to embrace the warriorhood, hope and faith. I have struggled. The ups and downs of a cancer diagnosis are truly exhausting. It’s super unfortunate that my Apple Watch doesn’t have a ring for that because I’d crush that goal every day.

There’s this love hate thing with being a Pinky. Only other survivors truly understand what it takes to get out of bed every morning. There’s this longing to wear pink, ribbons, tattoo WARRIOR across my forehead so that people can see what I went through but it doesn’t work that way. For some reason this year I have just struggled to rally.

The most important message of Breast Cancer Awareness month is GO GET YOUR MAMMOGRAM! For real. GO! Make your appointment right now. You can’t survive anything if you don’t know it’s there. Take care of your beautiful body. If you are a survivor, do your monthly checks. I know it’s scary. I hate it. I’ve gone months at a time where I’m just too terrified to check my sole survivor (right breast). I literally turn on the shower thinking, “oh, I need to do my monthly check” and then I just stand there for 15 minutes frozen until I decide to check tomorrow. For the love.