You can still find her in the classroom today even as she works past what she calls Chemobrain. Juana Perez is a two-time breast cancer survivor whose ordeal has forever changed her experience and mindset. Before her diagnosis, Perez considered herself fast-paced and didn’t fully engage with the present tense. She was constantly moving forward and worrying about what was to come when her job. However, when Perez was diagnosed with breast cancer, she was forced on medical leave.
The first time Perez was diagnosed, she took it relatively lightly, and she mainly focused on the positive and wanted to get better: which she knew she would. The second time though, that was a tough battle to fight.
“The second time around really opened my eyes.” After beating cancer the first time, she was convinced she wouldn’t get cancer again. But once she found out she had a 35% chance of survival, she lost hope.
“I didn’t want to fight; I didn’t have the energy or the willpower.” Perez struggled and was emotional to the point where she didn’t look forward to anything until she realized she had found a reason to fight: her girls.
“Waking up and hearing my girls in the kitchen making breakfast is my happy life.” Perez finally realized she had something worth fighting for; she decided to snap out of her depressive state and began to fight, although the chances of surviving that type of breast cancer were a lot lower.
“I believe everything happens for a reason; my faith allowed me to keep hope.” Perez believes that although sometimes we are blinded by these blessings, God will always put us on the right track. “Traffic is bad sometimes, but maybe there’s an accident or something that God is preventing me from experiencing.”
Once Perez snapped out of her depressive state, she began to fight cancer to her fullest and eventually beat triple-negative breast cancer with the support of her family. “From this fast-paced individual to a calm and in the moment person, my past has impacted my mindset for the better.”