Endings

So here we are. Another ending in my life. First, I finished community college, then I ended cancer treatments, and now I prepare for my last day at work. I have worked at the job for five years on and off. The off times came when I was too sick to be there. Yet the job always welcomed me back.

I have been thinking about all the endings in my life. People often think about endings as bad, but they are not all that way. Some are quite good. 

The best part of an ending, though? The realization that if there is an ending to one thing, there must be a beginning of another. Endings don't stop things, they start new things! As in, I stopped ignoring the call to run and I started running in May of this year. I stopped chemo and started a weird new life that is my new normal. 

And now I end my time at a job that I have both loved and hated. Loved because the people who work there are quite wonderful. Hated because the people who shop there aren't always. But through ups and down's I have learned a lot at this job, which was also my first job. I got it just one month after turning 16. Gosh, I was so young.

So I guess this is sort of another lesson cancer has taught me. Endings can be good. Though it doesn't turn out anything like I thought it would. Who could have guessed I would be leaving this job to work at a camp for 2 and a half weeks and then off to a college so great I could never have picked it for myself? Only God. 

So yes, things must come to an end. I am more thank okay with that. In fact, I am excited about that. Endings for me will always remind me of new beginnings, fresh starts, and beautiful mornings. 

Cancer taught me that nothing should be taken for granted. Not even endings.

-Rachael