October: The Pink Month

October is the pink month; it’s the month for breast cancer awareness. When I was a junior in high school I had no idea how important October would become in my life. But today as I think about how important it is now, it all started my junior year of high school.

I lost a close friend to breast cancer that year. She was my first riding instructor, my first coach, the woman who encouraged me to reach for the Olympics. She was 32 when she passed away. Her life was still full of amazing opportunities. It was all wiped away when the doctors told her that her cancer had spread too far. I remember the last time I rode with her, the chilling fall day. She was weak and could hardly mount on her own, but she did it, two weeks late we buried her.

Last year I lost Sonny. She had two different types of cancer, but the one that killed her, that was to far gone, was the breast cancer. I reeled in shock when I heard the news. I was in the midst of a divorce, unhappy, right where she had told me I would end up. I called to tell her she was right, I called to apologize. But instead I learned of her death.

Sonny was the woman who taught me that you don’t have to be what people think you should be. She encouraged me to stand on my own. She taught me how to shoot a bow and how to make it in a man’s world. But I was too young and ignorant to listen to most of her advice then. I stored it in my head, and as I’ve gone through this divorce and the following months I’ve rested on her advice a lot.

I shoot pink because of these two amazing women. I shoot pink because pink supports a cause that is so close to my heart. This month I will wear a pink ribbon around my wrist, in honor of all the women who have fought breast cancer. This month I will wear pink because it gives me hope that one day we will find a cure, one day there will be no more heartache from breast cancer.