Has it Been Three Years?

I was starting to write yesterday deciding whether to continue with my latest travel blog or interrupt it with my thoughts on the latest Gallium68 (PET/NET) scan, which involved the chaos of driving through what I think is the worst place to travel, right here in my own province, Toronto. Then I took a look at the calendar and realized what the date was and realized I almost missed something.

While the anniversary of my cancer diagnosis was on April 9th, while on my adventure, which means four years has already raced by and still have a hard time wrapping my head around that. What I also almost missed was that three years ago I decided to open my computer, sign up on WordPress and start a blog. Well over a 130 posts have been published in that time and six months ago I also decided to start a YouTube channel to start to bring along those who are interested in my travels, so far they only relate to my camping adventures and have considered adding more to that channel, it’s just a bit of work to bring it all together and I don’t want to take away anything from where this started, right here!

Although my blog is relatively small in context to many others, I still enjoy writing and have learned a lot about myself and more importantly been contacted by many others, whether its questions about cancer, my lifestyle, how I’ve worked at changing my habits and perspective on life or a private message from someone who just needs someone to talk too. This has become my life and it’s a far cry from what it was four short years ago, it has given me more of a sense of purpose and isn’t that’s what most of us are searching for? The blog has lead to speaking engagements and being part of an awareness video, something I’d never dreamt I’d be a part of, as looking back I kind of see myself just going through the motions of life, just existing when I always felt there was something more. In a strange twist of fate a terminal diagnosis has opened my eyes and lead me to try things I would’ve never experienced, solo travelling, writing poetry and even just sharing my life are some of the few things the pre-cancer Steve would’ve never ever considered, let along writing a blog that although I only have 300 followers it has reached people from every part of this earth and I find that so interesting and humbling and I’m grateful to anyone who has taken ten minutes to read a single post, to those of who who are my core group of followers, I love you all.

I have met and talked with some incredible people throughout these years, listened to their stories and been thanked by many who can see by reading this they are not alone, no matter what kind of disease has struck you down. I’m by far no doctor and would never dream of telling someone how they should go about dealing with their sickness. All I try to offer up is a bit of hope and some advice that I find works for me such as learning to meditate, trying to eat a well-balanced diet (although that doesn’t include broccoli, cauliflower and brussel sprouts that I can no longer digest, too bad although good for you probably some of my least favourite foods) so in that sense another benefit of cancer, as I’m sure Tracy would be insistent I keep trying them, so oh well, Lol. Exercise as best you can, a relaxing stroll on a nature trail can do wonders for the mind, reading and writing and most of all just doing what you love. Simple advice from a simple guy, what you see or read is what you get.

I’m not going to lie, there are some days when I feel like this is a waste of time when I get caught up I the stats that come with having a site, when sometimes you feel no-one is listening, then you get that message out of the blue, someone looking for comfort and just an ear to listen and can lend a little advice. I have learned a lot about myself over these years and plan to continue my march forward to hopefully give you lots of interesting content and maybe a little inspiration to get out there and find something you love. It’s not easy getting out of your comfort zone the older you get, so I can sympathize with most of you as I still struggle to jump into new adventures.

I want to thank you all for following along whether your new or been following for the last three years, I’m hoping for good news from my latest scan and will update you as we continue on here. To everyone who’s liked, left a comment or that I’ve even talked to and struck up new friendships with has meant the world to me. I will try to remain consistent here, during camping season that will be a bit of a challenge as I also have plans to up my game creating videos to go along with the blog. So, for today I’ll leave it at that and continue with more posts very shortly. I thank you all for taking time out of your day to read my post, as you all know I consider TIME as the most precious commodity of them all. Scattered throughout the post are some of my favourite pictures from the past year and if already haven’t check out my channel with hopefully a lot more content to come. Cheers to another year!