Avon Walk for Breast Cancer

This time last week, I was stretched out on my bed, more tired than ever in my life and thanking God I had taken Monday off. I spent this past week limping around in flip flops at work because of two of the world's biggest blisters- one on each heel. Saturday's heat was absurd: I didn't make the full 26.2 miles on Saturday because of heat exhaustion- med put me on a bus around mile 16 and then I met up with my team at mile 24 to enter the wellness village together. Sunday was better- still hot and humid but cloudier to cut the sunshine: I was able to walk the entire 13.1 miles despite the mother of all blisters on each foot.

The fundraising was a pain in the ass, the walk itself was killer because of the heat, and my feet may never be the same, but it was definitely the experience of a lifetime. When the president of the Avon Foundation handed out checks to local hospitals and organizations involved in the fight against breast cancer, and announced we had raised $6.5 million in the DC walk, it was hard not to feel proud. When they gathered us all together at the end and marched the survivors in separately, it was hard not to cry. When one of those survivors talked about being diagnosed back in the 1980s and feeling ashamed of having breast cancer, and about having dedicated her life since then to raising money and awareness so that no other woman would ever feel ashamed of her diagnosis, it was hard not to feel humbled.

Though I won't be able to participate in the Avon Walk when I'm overseas, I will be able to help my sister and mom fundraise; we're going to start early for next year!