I initially started this blog as a creative outlet for myself as well as being an advocate for women in business, specifically finance – considering that there are too few of us! Over time I have grown a collection of thoughts, insights, and opinions about life and the workforce that I wanted to share.  I figured that at the very least, the blog could just be for me, and if anyone felt compelled to read it, that would be a plus!

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I started the blog on February 3rd, 2018, merely acting on a new year’s resolution I had made for myself. Kind of a “just do it” sort of goal. So, I did it –The Bay Street Hippie was born and I had launched two posts that same day – It was an exciting start. The name I chose originated from one random night when my girlfriend was commenting on my love for music festivals and my alter ego as a hippie, but yet I worked in finance on Bay Street, so she proceeded to call me the Bay Street Hippie. The name fit perfectly, capturing my two extremes.

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I was loving my motivation of getting the blog going, but then 4 days later what happens?...... BOOM, I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. WHAT?!

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Here is a summary of my diagnosis: 

IDC 2A, Grade III, ER PR+, HER2 negative. No lymph no involvement although my pathology report showed invasion of the lymphatic system. Tumor was 2.1mm at it it's largest diameter. Diagnosis is also classified as T2 which is another way to capture the size of the tumor combined with lymph node involvement/non-involvement. I was 28 years old when the tumor started growing and 29 when I was finally diagnosed. 

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It took me a solid two months to decide whether or not I would use my blog as a way to share my journey through cancer. It certainly wasn’t what I had initially created the blog for, but maybe it was fate that had me set up the blog only 4 days prior to being diagnosed. It occurred to me that this could be my chance to both help myself through this as well as helping others.

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I launched my first blog post on the topic of my Breast Cancer on March 27th, 2018 titled “Why Me?”, and from then on, it has been the best decision I made during the year. Not only have I benefited from the therapeutic aspects of sharing, but I also have found that I’ve helped a lot of people along the way through my posts which touch on my real raw feelings (the good and bad) as I trek it through this journey – which by the way is going to be a lifetime in the making. SURPRISINGLY breast cancer doesn’t start and end with treatment.

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Perhaps going forward this blog can serve a multitude of purposes. I never appreciated the sentence:  "I will not let my cancer define me", until now. I’ve heard it many times, but never really understood its meaning. But cancer can absolutely define you. I almost don’t even see a way that it doesn’t define you. I don’t want everything in my life to be associated back to breast cancer though – “She survived cancer and now she got a promotion! Wow!”,  “she survived cancer and was able to finish a triathlon!! wow!”, or “She survived cancer and now she has a family, wow!”,. You can see how this association can be tacked on to any aspect of your life and you now have cancer following you around everywhere. It occurred to me though that for the purposes of sharing my story, I should maybe proudly take on this association and have this blog be a gleam of light for anyone who has been hit with the hardship of life and just needs to know that they too can get back on their feet and get back to the things they love.

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So that is a bit about me as well as how this blog started and what it has now transformed into. Going forward you will find blog posts about any and all of the above. I hope that anyone reading this can get something useful out of it, or at the very least, can just know that however hard your life is, always know that you have the ability to get through it.