There is something that connects us with people who have gone through similar experiences. People like to hear experiences of others in similar situation, before, during, and after they go through it. I remember reading Lance Armstrong¡¯s book and loving it because it gave me an idea of what I may be going through. I also met several people who had cancer at one time and went through all the treatment successfully. Now that my treatment is over, I did not realize that it will be equally interesting to hear experiences of other people.
Today I met Alison who may be in her late thirties. She had breast cancer about 5 years ago and underwent all treatment right here in San Diego. I worked with Alison in a case – she is a successful attorney in intellectual property area. Very bright and interesting person – went to Notre Dame so can also talk about Football. Alison, Sudha, and I had a long and very enjoyable coffee today. I heard all about how her case was detected and about the treatment and the recovery period. Of course I shared my experience too.
After the meeting I was thinking how people develop bonds on the basis of similar experiences. So many groups are formed to share experiences. Many hobby groups are so people can share their experiences and almost all support groups are also like that. One other thing that occurred to me – and I don¡¯t claim that I am right on this, this is just a thought – that woman are more experience oriented in their relationships than man. It appears that they share their experiences lot more and more graphically with their friends than man usually do.
Tomorrow I will be attending first business meeting after diagnosis of cancer. I will be sitting in a meeting of a company¡¯s presentation to a VC for investment. I will be there to advise the VC firm about the technology of the presenting company which happens to be in the area of Business Activity Monitoring. I am excited about getting back to this. And then going to Atlanta day after tomorrow. So things are slowly getting on track. Of course my energy level is very low, but I need to learn to work with this level rather than use it as an excuse.
Discussion
Juhi expressed her frustration about not having time based search. Well your frustration will increase a lot more when you will start using your mobile phone more as an Internet client than you do currently. Is somebody doing something about it — well I am not aware of any concrete project at any university or a company. But I will not be surprised if you will see some product from some start-up company one of these days.