• Brianna

Road Rebellion - Retrospective

This was a really amazing, surreal day of my life. The whole time I had cancer, I secretly filmed videos in my doctor's office, wondering all the while if you're even technically allowed to do that. Fast forward two years later, I have a job where the hospital staff is leading me and my camera through a tour of their facilities, and into the room of a young woman with the same kind of cancer I had. It was my first time near any kind of chemo infusion since my own treatment ended, and there I was watching a girl around my same age, with my same cancer, and a lot of the same major plot points of my own life story, getting hooked up to tubes, expressing all the same concerns I had. Honestly, it made me a little dizzy. Talk about flashbacks. But it was also one of the most incredible moments of empathy I've ever had the opportunity to experience. There is a person in North Dakota who is just like me, has the same fears and concerns, has the same struggles, and deserves the same quality of life. There is probably someone in North Dakota who is just like you, too. There is also probably someone in Iowa, and Missouri, and Montana, and everywhere else in America. Ultimately, we are all in this together. We all might get sick. We all might need each other's help. We are all comforted to know we are not alone.

#cancer #lymphoma #filmmaking #documentary #teencanceramerica #cancersurvivor