Thank You Speech Homecoming Party - May 23, 2009

On May 23rd, 2009, Alyson’s friends and family came together at her parents' house in Kitchener to wish her well as she entered her year of treatment.  175 family and friends attend, some of whom Alyson had not seen in years.  It was a truly inspiring day, which Alyson often goes back to as a source of strength on days when the heaviness of her cancer is too much.  

Thank you all for coming – This has been an incredible day. First and foremost I would like to thank all of you for your help today and for everything you have done this week and today – Bringing food, gardening, moving birds' nests, taking photos, setting up, bringing gifts donating, showing up, and on and on. Thank you for helping make this day so special and for a perfect party.  I really needed it.   This is a significant moment for me.  I don’t want to get too “Leadership” but if you would please indulge me with the opportunity to thank you formally, I would be grateful.  I am going to read this against my facilitation and presentation training to help me get through it.  Here we go

I am overwhelmed.  I am a quotes person – anyone here who has worked with me knows, that every presentation, every report, and a quote comes with it.  I went original with this experience and the quote that I think best summarizes this is:

“We are the personification of the company we keep – And I am always in the best company”

I have told people that I knew that I was liked, I knew that people liked having me around, but I have underestimated how important I am in your lives. What is more interesting is that I have learned more about myself, and who I really am, from the stories that you have shared. I have spent a lot of time on email over the past week – my friend Amanda told me I needed an assistant to keep on top of it. One of the interesting things that have come up is the way emails start – They always had a different name in the salutation 

Hey …. AW, Aly Wo, Ali, Woloshyn, Wolosh, Wooly, Pops, Suntan, Coach, Ali – Cat, Cat, A-Rod.  And of course – Alyson.  

Just like everything else that I do – I can’t have just one nickname.  These names, the groups have given me it is how they know me.   Each persona brings out different stories, different connections, different activities, and different people.   Yet somehow, Alyson seemed to translate across the personas.  Through the countless messages, I have read I have had the wonderful opportunity to understand how all of you, through the different personas you have given me, have come together in who I am as Alyson.  Here is one example.  

I got an email from a friend, Kelsey Orth.  He is a part of a group of friends who refers to me as Suntan. You can find members of that group here today and ask them why they call me Sun Tan.  This is a group of unlikely friends for me, as they were my dad’s students and my dad didn’t teach at my high school.  I remember asking my dad once “Did you ever think I would hang out with your students.”    I think he responded “I had hoped you wouldn’t but if you were going to befriend any of my students, I’m happy it’s these guys as they are great people”  He still keeps in touch with them and many are here today to support me. 

One of the things I am known for is my great musical taste and specifically that I have a wee bit of an obsession with a little band named Bon Jovi.  Well, there was a time, on a little blue bus, when I was hanging out with my dad’s student, when I think the words “Kelsey - Enough with the Bon Jovi” came out of my mouth more than once.  In emailing Kelsey I recalled this moment and said to him,  “The people who know my Bon Jovi obsession best know me as Woloshyn - but they don't know that the Bon Jovi love was born in Suntan.”   

I like that although I am part of all these important circles where what you call me may change, the full persona of Alyson is always ever-present.  No matter what you call me, thank you for helping me become who I am, which, I feel, is a pretty special person in Alyson.

The elephant in the room can not go unnoticed.  Although in many ways, I am the BEST I have ever been, I will quote my brother “This is serious” and it really is.  I am comfortable enough with all of you to be honest and I know I don’t have to tell you that my situation is scary.  There are a lot of unknowns, a lot of bleak statistics, and well – not a lot of reasons to throw a party.

But here we are.  And this is where you have underestimated the impact you have had on me.

I am continually hearing – You are so brave, You have so much strength.  But I know get that strength from all of you.  A common theme in every message I receive, no matter the salutation is the immediate, unequivocal, and unanimous reaction of – Alyson, You Got This.  My friend Lisa Wannamaker, who knows me as Woloshyn I think best articulated this reaction when she told me  “This is what survivor stories look like” 

My situation is serious and it would be easy to be in a very different, very lonely, very desperate place.   Not at a party.  And the fact that we are all here, celebrating, laughing is very powerful. That strength is not all About Alyson Woloshyn – No Way. That strength is all about all of YOU.   

There is so much more I want to share, so many stories I want to tell.   I have many strengths, but brevity isn’t one of them, and neither is my ability to let other people talk.  One of my strengths though is I am a giver of gifts.  And I have one for all of you and I hope on this occasion, a group gift is ok.  Music as you know is important to me and I love to dance.  Those that know me as Aly Wo know that I had to have a 2:15 pm dance break in order to get through the day, complete with flashing overhead fluorescent lights.   And there is a Wooly Woloshyn Soundtrack, certain songs that are particularly dance-worthy.  I have picked a sample and if you would indulge me in dance – or 4 – I would invite you to stick around, spread out on the grass and join in.    

I have very strong FAITH. I am not religious but I am spiritual and my Faith is Karma – Good stuff out, Good stuff comes back.  There is no question that my surgery was so pain-free and so easy because all of you believed that it would be.  I am a survivor and I need all of you to continue to be stoic in the belief that Alyson will beat this.  Never question, never wallow in the negative, and never dwell on the potential negativity of this “incurable” diagnosis.  Keep it All About Woloshyn.  Read my blog which will be coming, stay connected to my website, stay interested in my well-being, get active in your own health, come back to visit my parents, and enjoy each other.    I will need all of that to help me move through my 15 months of treatment comfortably and hopefully, it will bring me the strength to return to “regular” life.  It will bring me to the day when it’s NOT All About Woloshyn – For the first time in my life – I look forward to that day.

I look forward to chatting, writing, emailing, talking, skyping, visiting, thinking, and seeing you soon and often.   I love you all. Thank you – Let’s Dance!