As a sequel to my blog post “To My Son With Love,” I am proud to announce my son Alex just graduated from Cornell University magna cum laude!
Alex, born a healthy, 10 lb. baby boy, was diagnosed with a rare malignant eye cancer at 10 months old. As parents, we were devastated. The whole world felt like it was going to drop from underneath us that day.
Alex’s right eye was removed immediately to save his life and he underwent over 5 years of cancer treatment to save his remaining eye and his life. It changed our whole family’s life—years of a regimen of putting Alex under anesthesia to treat and monitor the sight in his remaining eye, enduring the suffering and anxiety that we experienced as parents, trying to continue to manage a stable family life with his siblings (brother and sister), medical bills, and work.
Would I ever have believed that today, 21 years later, he would be alive to make his family and those around him so PROUD!!! Alex today is a bright, healthy survivor and has overcome. He is an intelligent, handsome young man who is visually impaired but has not held back on living his life. In fact, we could all learn from him; he enjoys life to the fullest, even being visually impaired. He loves to learn, travel and experience life. He is a great human being and friend to me and his friends; he is extremely popular. He worked really hard and experienced a normal college social life—more than I even want to know about!
It was an incredible celebration for family and friends as he received his special degree magna cum laude, which he earned with his thesis combining his major in psychology with neuro-scientific research he accomplished in Hong Kong during his internship and at Cornell University alongside the top scientists in the field—and being published as an undergrad!
Three days after Alex graduated he traveled off to Togo, Africa, to work on a project to help engineer water pipes into a village that needs water supply! Can I now live through my son? This is only the beginning of his accomplishments!!!
To my son, with love and tears of pride: you’ve made me abundantly proud.
I love you dearly,
Mom