Every year for the past four years, I have shaved my head for a foundation called St. Baldrick’s. St. Baldrick’s is a foundation dedicated to fighting Child Cancer by raising awareness and money. In my town, there is an event for this foundation that happens once every year around the start of springtime. I was introduced to this event by one of my good friends living in Weston whose family runs the event. This friend had a tumor in his head and had it removed; he was fortunate that it was benign; however, many childhood cancers are not. He is also part of the reason why I do this: because I value our friendship and being part of a community. 

For this event, I raise money beforehand by asking for donations in exchange for me shaving my head. When all the other people who are participating and I shave our heads, it is in solidarity with those children who lose their hair due to Chemotherapy. This event allows me to remain in touch with my friends that I don’t get to see a lot. There are many reasons why this event is held in my town and why so many people in my community participate. One of the main reasons is that there is a boy named Body in my town. Years ago, Body was diagnosed with a rare type of blood cancer. Having a rare type of blood cancer and the lack of knowledge about it adds to the fear of cancer, its effects, and its prognosis. I couldn’t imagine this fear, but I wanted to help however I could. 

You likely know that there is no cure for cancer, but maybe you don’t know that the same treatment that was used 50 years ago is still being used today to help the 400,000 kids under 20 diagnosed with cancer a year. Body has beaten this cancer twice, but he is still not fully cancer free as you must not have cancer for over 5 years or it has a good chance of coming back. This year he gave a speech in front of everyone at the event talking about his time with cancer, specifically about his time in the cancer hospital. Body talked about how he was the lucky one, how he had beaten cancer, while the many friends he had made along the way are still fighting or have lost their battles. Every year, 91,500 kids lose to cancer worldwide, and in the United States, cancer causes the most deaths for kids out of any other disease. 

All of these facts and what Body expressed helped me realize something that I plan to follow through with for the rest of my life. Help people. Help people because there are always others out there experiencing worse than you. I realized none of my current problems compare to many people’s real, life-altering struggles. I am lucky I know that, but these events made me realize how lucky I am. This realization helped me to not overreact to every little thing that goes partly wrong. It’s helped me to realize that it’s not worth complaining or worrying about my problems so much when that energy could be used to help solve others’ problems. Shaving my head is the least I can do at this point in my life. I’m lucky that it still grows back pretty quickly and if it helps raise money for childhood cancer, I will do it for as many years as I can.