The past few weeks have been really interesting for me, with Lucie in Kindergarten.

First, there are some things you should know — we put Lucie in Kindergarten LAST year, at a school we didn’t particularly like, because that’s where we were assigned. School started at the height of my chemotherapy, and in retrospect, we should have thought about keeping her in the Montessori school that she was really comfortable and secure with.

But we moved forward with enrolling her, and it was a disaster. So we pulled her out.

So now she’s in Kindergarten at the school we wanted for her in the first place, and boy is it a different year! Lucie is confident and happy again — I am confident and happy again…we love her teachers and are getting to know the other parents.

So (FINALLY!) I get to what I wanted to write about today — which is, simply, it’s weird meeting people post-cancer treatment (not really post treatment, exactly, since I get maintenance therapy every month, but you know…). Meeting them as a survivor.

I have been trying to figure out when it’s appropriate to mention it, but not have it be the first thing out of my mouth. Do I even mention it at all? It seems like with some things — wife, mother…it’s one of the first things out of your mouth as a way to let people know who you are and what is important to you. Is cancer survivor something that I now regularly add to my definition of self?

Me: Woman, wife, mother, incessant chatterer, boat owner, avid reader, wine enthusiast, cancer survivor? I’m not sure. Does it say anything more about me than, say, boat owner? I would almost say boat owner might says more, simply because I chose it. I did not choose cancer survivor.

But.

Then again. I am happy to be a survivor, and it was and is a huge part of who I became and am in the past year. So I will add it to my definition of self, and continue to figure out when to share it, and with whom.