Joanna has really got this one right. There are plenty of other things that can take you down before this cancer or another cancer does. Step off the curb at the wrong time, and cancer is a non issue. While I have learned to live in the moment more than I ever have before in my life, that doesn't mean that I do not think about tomorrow. I now try to get the most out of everyday and do the things which are important. I don't suffer fools for very long any more, and I fill my days with satisfying and meaningful pursuits. Cancer survivorship teaches us all the obvious. Life is finite. Don't waste it. And letting it occupy a disproportionate amount of your thought process is wasting your time. You cannot change what is going to be. You can tip the scale a little in your favor through knowledge and lifestyle, but that is the best that you can do. Part of living completely is planning for the future, if it is next week, next month, or five years from now, it makes no difference. You will have to try to come to terms with the fact that you can have something horrible like this happen again in your life. If you do, you may survive it again. But I will bet that you didn't spend your pre-cancer life worrying about not being here in one year or five years. Yet it was quite possible that something could have taken you down. So the trick is keeping perspective. I can't remove cancer from my mind or from who I am now. Particularly because of OCF and dealing with so many others who are in the fight, both as patients, caregivers and doctors. But outside of the functions of dealing with it through the foundation daily, I try, NOT ALWAYS SUCCESSFULLY, to not let it be my dominant thought. I am planning to do many things over the next ten years, some related to bringing the death rate from this disease down, some related to more personal experiences. If I do not stay focused on those future events I would withdraw in anxiety and fear. The future is what we must continue to look at, but it is like a moving target, constantly changing with new opportunities and obstacles to getting there always presenting themselves to us. Live positively. Live strong. Live with an eye on the future.

Brian, stage 4 oral cancer survivor. OCF Founder and Director. The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.