CANCER FREE.

Northern Star editor Haley Galvin has finished her cancer treatments. That is, if cancer is ever over this side of the grave.

If you would have told me six months ago that my birthday would consist of me sitting in a room for five-and-a-half hours getting chemotherapy, I would have told you there was no way. However, that was exactly how I spent my 22nd birthday, at my sixth and final treatment for ovarian cancer.

I don’t often say out loud that I have, or had, cancer because while I am technically cancer-free, I still don’t feel entirely done with this journey. I don’t know if I ever will. I think there will always be some part of me that feels I am still someone with cancer. At the very least, I can now say I am a cancer survivor, even though it feels like I am too young to say that, and it is true in a sense. The percentage of women my age to have had this type of cancer is so low.

I still find it hard to believe I was the “lucky less than 1%.” Please note the sarcasm there. There is nothing lucky about this journey. It took my dream of children away from me. It took a lot of hope and joy away from me. The only thing I can say I am happy about is that it is over with, for the most part.

I will still have to go in for tests every few months for the next five years.

The surprises a capricious reality throws at people. Be well.