Maki graduated from nursing school as an RN just a year and a half after she was first diagnosed with Stage 4 Glioblastoma Brain Cancer.
Maki first began having seizures during the first semester of nursing school. One was so bad that she ended up in the hospital. That is when the doctors ran an MRI and found a mass growing in her brain. At this point the doctors weren’t aware if it was cancer or benign. She wanted to get through her first semester so she scheduled the surgery during her summer break. She went into surgery like a champ and we thought that was it. About a week later the doctors told us it was stage 4 Glioblastoma Brain Cancer and that she would have to start chemotherapy and daily radiation immediately. I remember when she got the phone call, she was sitting on my mom’s bed crying. I couldn’t hear exactly what was going on, but I knew it wasn’t good.
I was 23 years old and was also on summer break at SJSU. But something strange happened the week before the surgery even took place. In Japanese, it is called “satori,” it means instant awakening.
I hit probably one of my lowest points. My life had not been easy to say the least…It seemed as if chaos followed me everywhere. I had so much built up anger, hatred and resentment toward all of these people and circumstances that had taken place in my life. You know when so much shit just keeps happening to you over, and over, and over again, that you just start to hate life? You start to hate everyone and everything around you. Not appreciating what you have because all you can see is everything that is going wrong. I was a ticking time bomb and everybody knew it.
It all happened within a moment. I fell into a hole so deep that all I could do was surrender. Fighting was no longer an option for me. It was so bad that all I truly wanted was happiness…peace…gratitude…I would do anything for it. I was so desperate that I was willing to let go of everything that held me hostage. That meant I had to let go of all of the stories of things that people did to me, all of the people who lied or betrayed me. I had to let go of things from my childhood. I had to let go of all these perceived negative situations and negative thought forms. I let go of years of built up resentment. I had to find forgiveness for everything in my past. Forgiving these people and circumstances did not mean that these things were okay or that I had to allow these people back into my life. No, I just let go of the built up resentment and find forgiveness in my heart so I could feel happiness again, for the first time in a long time. And so I did. I promised myself that it was a fresh start from that moment going forward. I would no longer allow myself to become a victim and reflect on ways that people have wronged me in the past so that I could feel peace. I had to choose to let go of holding onto the things that were burning me. I no longer held onto for what that person said that about me, what that person did to me, or how that person treated me. Soon I started to see the reason behind why everything happened in my life up until that point. Realizing that holding onto these things kept me a prisoner in my own life. All the hardship, struggling, issues with people and relationships. I was able to see past the bullshit and know that there was a deeper meaning behind it all. It was all for growth. I finally felt free. Life felt lighter and I felt a deeper connection to the world around me. It was to bring me to this exact point. To this new version of me. I had full faith in the Universe…
I remember when Maki got that call. I didn’t know what to think. In moments like that you are so in shock that it is hard for the emotions to even flow. It felt like I went numb with a pit in my stomach. After much research on Glioblastoma, you just about find out it’s one of the most aggressive cancers out there and that people rarely survive. Glioblastoma brain tumors can double in size and grow the size of a golf ball in just 7 days. The survival rate was 12-18 months, if you were lucky. I searched far and wide for a survival story. I found a few and even got in contact with them. That’s all I needed. I needed to know it was possible to survive and that you CAN beat the statistics. I was scared, you bet, but I had this underlining sense of faith that everything was going to work out…I took it upon myself to take over from there. I was my sister’s right hand man, I was her patient advocate. Attending and recording each and every doctor visits, phone calls, taking notes, asking all of the questions. I was right by her side through it all. She knew she could count on me. I knew she would survive this. I knew she would go on and be happy. I could feel it, I could see it, and I made her believe it too. Everybody in my family believed it too. Even during her chemo/radiation treatment she went on with her life. She didn’t let this debilitate her. She openly posted online about it. She used the situation to empower her. She was a fearless badass.
Since I was on summer break myself I took her to every single daily treatment appointment. I’ve always loved to cook but that is when I started to only cook with whole, organic, source ingredients for us. I started researching ways of how to avoid harmful toxic chemicals in our daily lives and how to heal from within. I shared how important it was to find gratitude and forgiveness so that we could create peace in our lives. To new thought forms… We spent all day together so I told her everything I learned and we both implemented these new ways of being. She became a healthier, healed version of herself. Just like myself.
It all started to make sense. Why I had to hit that wall and reach the absolute lowest point in my life. In order to become who I was meant to be in that moment so I could handle this situation the right way and in the manner that I did. I held so much more gratitude for that moment and felt a much deeper connection to the Universe. That even in the darkest moments, there is order and they are meant to transform us.
Maki is a fucking champ. It was hard of course, she’s a human with stage 4 brain cancer. But her strength and drive is unbelievable. She was putting up a fight for her life. Her treatment ended right as the second semester of nursing school was about to start. We all begged her to take a break. We all begged her to just take it easy and not go back to school right away. We tried to tell her that she could take a semester off and it would be okay. I mean, she JUST went through brain surgery, radiation, and chemo! Come on! But she didn’t. She kept fighting and ended up graduating nursing school as an RN just a year and a half after she was diagnosed. The crazy thing was that she was still on chemo every single month through the whole entire schooling. She wasn’t going to let anything stop her from accomplishing her dream.
Right after she graduated, she started working. She was clear for 5 years before another reoccurance, living her dream, working as an RN at Kaiser Permanente and Valley Medical. Often times when I bring up my sister, there is a lot of sorrow. But that’s not why I share her story. I share her story to tell the world that the impossible is possible. That my sister lived 7+ YEARS after first being diagnosed with Glioblastoma. It IS possible. You can survive. But you have to believe in yourself and not give up, no matter what. You will have to fight. But you are worth it.
Up until that summer, my plan after I graduated college was to do sales and work at corporate Pureology. But a much bigger dream dawned on me that summer. I started an anonymous instagram account where I just posted quotes about peace, spirituality, mindset, and nutrition. All I wanted to do was share this knew found peace I developed. To share that we aren’t alone and we are ALL connected to infinite consciousness. And that you could be happy if you truly wanted to. That it is always up to us. That there is order in chaos. We just have to be willing to let go of all the things that we allow to keep us stuck. All of the things from our upbringing, all of the people that have hurt us in our lives, all the things that didn’t work out that was keep us thinking nothing ever works out and that life sucks. To let go…and surrender. To trust that you are taken care of. That we could heal from within. That we all have the power within us to change our lives and perform miracles. Maki was a true example of a miracle. All I wanted was everybody to know it was possible for them too. By changing our thought patterns, our eating habits, and the way we take care of our physical and mental.
Then it was time for me to start my senior year of college. I had big plans afterwards… Didn’t go exactly as planned…but it led me here…this moment again.
