It was the afternoon of December 31, 2013.
I was 20 years old.
Perhaps too few to discover that they have Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. A diagnosis that explained in a flash all that unjustified fatigue I had suffered from in the last month, and that if it hadn’t been for my mom, I probably would have continued to underestimate.
Not a great way to greet an already complicated 2013 and welcome a not exactly sparkling 2014: chemotherapy, radiotherapy, miles to reach the hospital that was treating me. A commuter with pounding negative thoughts, like traveling companions.
Yes, it takes very little to get rid of the label of a “normal” guy.
Nothing was enough for me, and my life made up mainly of simple things no longer existed.
The thing I least tolerated was to keep giving explanations to friends and relatives, to teammates and opponents, when the question was always the same: “Hi Schiaro, why don’t you play? Are you injured? ”. At that point I had to tell the truth.
Every day the light at the end of the tunnel seemed ever closer to me, thanks also to the people who have always been close to me, like my family, my old friends (who even organized a surprise party for me on my twenty-first day. birthday) or my teammates, thanks to whom I was able to play the last five (unexpected) minutes of that damned championship.
It is said that sometimes you have to hit rock bottom to be able to fully appreciate life.
Well, I endorse it.
Now that I managed to get up after the fall, life has a different meaning for me. It is more precious in the little things, more rewarding in personal growth, purer in the people I have learned to look at with a deeper look and with less prejudice.
I owe my life to my willpower, to people dear to me, to my friends and teammates, to the Doctors and Nurses of Hematology at the Santa Maria Nuova Hospital in Reggio Emilia (a formidable team that fought my side with a smile and with that right word at the right time that always makes the difference).
Today I am 27 years old, I graduated in Management Engineering from the University of Parma, I work in a local company and I returned to play.
I consider myself lucky. Mature. Embellished with this experience. With a great desire to talk and tell it.
Proud to have accompanied other “sick” young people on a path equal to mine and rewarded in having become their point of reference. I, who have never felt special or better, have felt important thanks to them.
Long live the life!
Michele