Pickle (to those who don’t know, Pickle is one of my best friends, Her real name is Nicole, but I’ve called her Pickle since we were 16) and I recently had a conversation about how some of life’s best rewards have come wrapped in the most challenging packages. I can’t recall the exact context of our discussion, pregnancy, marriage and relationships, parenthood, navigating a difficult escrow, or just life in general.

She posed an interesting question: “Has anything truly worthwhile ever been ‘easy’?” This prompted me to reflect on my own life and respond “no.”

One of my favorite quotes is, “Be kind to everyone, for they are fighting a battle you know nothing about.” This serves as a reminder that everyone is grappling with their challenges.

I often think about those closest to me. My mom, for instance, struggled with infertility, which ultimately led her to adopt me. Likewise, my birth mother faced an unwanted pregnancy, making the difficult decision to give me up for adoption—a choice she has described as one of the most agonizing experiences of her life. Nevertheless, it resulted in an open adoption with me and my family. My husband weathered a divorce and left his career in the army, forcing him to move home with his mother and co-parent with her while rebuilding his life in his mid-30s. This spring, he graduating summa cum laude from USC and begin his master’s in finance program.

My best friends have had their share of struggles, including infertility, miscarriages, single parenthood, the loss of their sense of self to motherhood, the passing of parents, and heart-wrenching breakups. They’ve faced tough choices, made huge sacrifices, and overcome huge obstacles. I view them in the highest regard for their resilience.

As I pondered this blog, I coined the tagline “Turning Lemons into Lemonade Every Day.” and I decided this will be the guiding theme of this blog moving forward.

While I will continue to provide updates on my battle with cancer, which I hope will remain positive, I also want to explore what inspires me. I want to discuss what living life to the fullest means to me now that I’m living with a terminal illness and detail the hurdles I’ve had to overcome to find fulfillment in my life.

I’m excited to extend an invitation to my friends to guest blog about their own struggles, the challenges they’ve faced, and how they too have managed to make lemonade.

In the words of the late Dana Reeve, “Some of the choices in life will choose you. How you face those choices, these turns in the road, and the attitude with which you approach them, will ultimately define the context of your life.”

I am looking forward to this next chapter of my journey through life.