College Application Essay
Matthew Jeff Terry
December 2000 

Gazing at the glass statue that gleams back at me from my bookcase I reflect on the memories of my journey over the past two years. Yesterday I addressed the United Nations in New York when I received the Andre Sobel Award for ‘courage in the face of adversity.’ I found myself in front of more than a hundred important people including ambassadors from foreign countries and presidents of prominent organizations. When I took the podium, the audience listened attentively to what sounded to them as “powerful words”-- words to me that were just spoken from my heart. Now, looking at the award situated on my top shelf I come to realize that this honor is recognition for both what I have begun and so much more that I want to accomplish.

When I look in the mirror all I see is a tall, skinny 17 year old. The reaction that I received yesterday is helping me to recognize the aspects of my individuality that cannot be revealed in a reflection. The vibrant fire of my character shines through in my words. It astounds me that I am able to move people with my desire to live as well as my drive to help others overcome the disease that has had such a profound effect on my life. In March of 1999 I was first diagnosed with advanced Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Having no idea how sick and debilitated the chemotherapy and radiation treatments would make me, I decided to go to school through the first rounds of therapy. Through those months I struggled through nausea and weakness to finish my course work and keep up my high academic standards. My bald head and frail figure set me apart, but I wasn’t ashamed of showing other students my body as a constant reminder of the work that I was doing outside of school to stay alive. After eight months of treatment I was announced in clinical remission.

An acute relapse in January of 2000 pulled me out of school and forced me to focus full time on survival. To treat the very serious recurrence, I endured over half a year of intense chemotherapy followed by a stem cell transplant. In those months it was a rare occasion that I left my house or even my bed for that matter. While my friends were going off to formal dances and basketball games I was sitting at home waiting for the anti-nausea medication to kick in. The reaction of my friends to the seriousness of my illness left me practically in solitude in the months that I was in such drastic need of guidance and support.

The Internet became my primary connection to the outside world. Terrified and isolated by the seriousness of my illness, in my darkest hours I set up a web site in hopes of connecting with other patients. Appreciative of the people that I had connected with online, I was influenced to evolve my website farther as a resource to the community. My site, CureHodgkins.com, contains valuable resources and information for patients and their families and supports them with stories of hope and survival.

I used my brief talk at the UN to express how my survival has manifested a personal desire to help others. I want to see an international network created to provide emotional support from cancer survivors to patients and a link among loved ones of those battling cancer in desperate need of answers and encouragement.

As a cancer survivor, I have no certainty where life will bring me, whether to the UN or back to the chemotherapy bed. I have been told that my chances of life are small, but that fire of ambition inside me hasn’t burnt out.  My struggle with cancer has made me realize the importance of my time on earth, and the power I have as an individual to positively affect lives.