All the small things

A wise woman once told me, " Life is sweeter than any food I could put in my mouth" .  This came up in the first chat me and a dear friend had about cancer. Her name is Rachel, she was the first person I found who has DIPG. She gave me hope, someone to talk to about the situation. As lost as I was in the dark pit of despair after my diagnosis, she gave me a hand to get out. Not that my family, girlfriend and friends werent doing their best, but they lacked the experience to deal with this situation first hand. Rachel knew what I was going through and reassured me, helped me get my bearings so I could get out of depression and start living again.
     Those word though, have stuck with me on my journey and I have made them into my own. I've kinda made a theory about life. There are two types of rewards we can get out of life. The rewards of experience and the rewards of pleasure, long-term vs. short-term.
     What would be a short term reward? things that can make you happy for a short time. I want you to recall the best cake you ever consumed. Remember what it looked like? what color it was? chocolate or vanilla?  so you can remember that, good, you should be able to recall something. Though can you still taste it? and you get that same feeling you had? I can't . It doesn't bring the same smile as when I first had that wonderful bit of heavenly baked goodness.
   What does however is memories of things I have done. Graduated, first kiss, first car accident, picking up tennis and enjoying nature. My wonderful vacation to Hawaii definitely ranks on the list. What does these things all have in common? They happened, they can never be reproduced, they are a singular event in a life that is solely mine. They are reminiscent of  times past that will always bring me joy.
     So what do I want from life? If cancer feeds off sugar than not eating sugar should help extend my life. If I can have even one more year, filled with memories that will never disappear as they are written in the annals of time, than trading that for sugar is a fair deal I will gladly accept.
   In closing, choose rewards that will benefit you for the rest of your life, that will hold meaning when you are gone, opposed to the rewards that will benefit only you for a short time and be gone the next day.