The Recession is Bullhonkey Vanessas Story - When I Grow Up

The Recession is Bullhonkey Vanessas Story - When I Grow Up This is part of  The Recession is Bullhonkey series, where I share stories of those who have gotten hired and/or started their own businesses (or sometimes both!) since 2008.  As a cancer survivor myself, I especially love Vanessas story, which youre about to read below. Cancer can take our organs, but never our (sick but appreciated!) sense of humor OR our dream career! I was diagnosed with cancer in 2010 after losing my dad and my last full time job. I had a big, fat gap on my resume that I couldnt quite explain away. No one at my colleges career counseling department warned me that I could be broke, bald and dying at 25. As Stephanie Tanner on Full House would often lament, How rude. So I did what any sane person would do. I started my own business. I was really mad that my cancer diagnosis had really awful timing. My last job was working in Human Resources figuring out which employees to fire because of the economy. Two weeks before I’m let go, my father suddenly passed away at age 79. I was 23 and none of my friends could understand why I was fed up with ever working again. You see, the last 3 days my dad was alive he regressed in his memories to his last job as a superintendent of the building I grew up in. 79 years’ worth of memories and all he could think about was a job that treated him like garbage. I had to keep working though I found it distasteful. Temp jobs dried up so, I applied to volunteer at my favorite museum and was accepted. I threw myself into meeting as many staff members as I could, trying network for a paying position. At the highest point of my master plan of finding gainful employment, I was foiled by that dastardly disease called lymphoma. My heart and lungs were being crushed by a 23cm cancerous mass. I had to start chemotherapy immediately and things were touch and go for the next six months. I didnt have the physical energy to go to the museum nor did I have an immune system that would protect me from the teeming masses of germs patrons brought with them. Cancer forced me to become a hermit and hide from the world. Again, how rude! To alleviate the boredom of forced solitude, I turned to my crafting habit. As a joke, I sewed a lymph node to give to my oncologist. Nurses and patients alike asked me to make one for them. People lit up holding Lymphy and laughing at his embroidered smile. They all wanted one and put in requests for different organs. I opened up an Etsy shop called Survival Organs in 2013. I’m now marketing my organs as a better alternative to flowers and Hallmark Cards for sick friends. The response has been overwhelmingly positive. I was a vendor at Stupid Cancers OMGEast 2014 Summit in New York City. My fellow young adult cancer survivors cleared me out of inventory and happily paid deposits for custom organs. I was worried about my product being too niche and too weird. My organs are odd but people love them. Analyzing my cancer experience, I saw what kept me going was my strange sense of humor. Ive been able to allow other people, cancer survivors or not, to laugh at the awful and absurd situations life puts us in. I have the freedom to do limited travel, I get to work around how my body is feeling (or not feeling) according to the day and I get to make people laugh, even for only a moment. I couldnt get the job I thought I wanted so I made the job that Ive fallen in love with. Plus, I get to tell my mom that Im legally selling my body online. While battling lymphoma at age 25, Vanessa realized that there was a dearth of support for young people to deal with their cancer diagnosis. Support groups full of grandparents didn’t address having job or family stress, and she vowed that when she was back on her feet she would help people like her find a way to cope and thrive. Focusing on the things that got her through her dark times, and using her creativity as an outlet, she started Survival Organs, selling stuffed organs with funny faces. You can’t punch your real guts but you can punch one of hers.