Many of us, have often dreamed about knowing how long you’ll live, what you’ll be doing, and so on, but what if you were only given a certain amount of time.

What if you found out you were only going to live for another six months? What if you had found out that the cancer had spread and there was nothing the modern medical world could do for you anymore?

Makes you not want to know anymore doesn’t it?

What would you do?

My uncle Roy, has been battling cancer for a while and today my dad told me he was given his life sentence of six months…the cancer has spread too far and there is nothing that medical world can do anymore except ease the pain as the cancer devours the body.

Roy taught me to appreciate the stars and how to find the big dipper. My love of astronomy grew from campfire nights staring at the darkness. Roy would take Crystal (his daughter), myself, and my sister, camping on weekends and we’d spend time roasting marshmallows and telling ghost stories. I have traveled with Roy, my aunt Gloria (who we call “Sister” since she was the only daughter my grandparents ever had), Crystal, and my family to Colorado where we lived in a camper during my first grade year. We lived in Georgia at a campground for a while too and in a motel in Texas during the summer of my fourth grade year. He and my dad were in construction and the family followed where they went.

As I remembered all of that today, I wondered what I would do if I were given a the ultimatum of “you have six months to live.”

I know I would throw my nieces in a car and we’d camp out underneath the stars and travel as far as we could and as long as we could. I would show them the things that were passed down to me. I would teach them astronomy like my Uncle Roy did for me and I would teach them to love travel like their grandma did for me.

I think one can turn a life time of living into a wonderful six months of life. It’s not a death sentence. It’s permission to do the things you have always wanted to do but have been scared to do.

I don’t know what Roy and Sister will be doing, and to be be honest, it’s none of my business, but I hope they’re going to spend as much time on a bike, traveling the great roads together, and I hope they spend it with their daughter and grandson taking in every last bit of sunshine in each day and moonlight in each night.