Because of me, worry less.

Those who know me, know I’m a bit of a hippie. I’m a hippie that likes designer shoes. It’s called balance.

I recycle everything I can. When we moved back to the area from Minneapolis, I roped my husband into hauling all of our recyclables to the drop offs with me because we didn’t have convenient curbside recycling for all the things like we had been used to. I use unpaper towels whenever I can. (If you want to jump on this train, I recommend www.porterlees.com . She has the coolest prints, impeccable customer service, and has built her business from a small Etsy shop.)

I use mostly natural cleaners (but gotta have that anti-bac stuff too.) I package our leftover food in glass containers instead of plastic, and absolutely don’t put plastic in the microwave. I buy organic produce and food when I can. I was once involved in what I later found out was an illegal raw milk ring. I know super nerdy things about which spices and foods activate vitamins and antioxidants in other foods. I still wholeheartedly believe food can be medicine and try to use whole foods over processed. I took probiotics before they were cool.

I tell you this because I did all these things, and I still got cancer. I have very little sporadic family history of cancer, no breast cancer at all, and I still got cancer. Something I've learned along this journey is only 5-10% of breast cancers are actually genetic; so if you have something you want checked, and it's dismissed because "you're so young, and you don't have any family history of it," don't let that deter you from getting it checked further. It’s incredible to think that so many people get this disease, and we still have no idea how it happens most of the time.

Please, do me a favor. Control the risks we absolutely know about - don’t smoke or vape or chew. You don’t want to go through this if you can help it. And worry less about the rest of it.