Every Day I Fight

Book 58 of my 2015 Reading Challenge

read from August 27 - 31

Every Day I Fight by Stuart Scott

Summary (via Goodreads)

Shortly before he passed away, on January 4, 2015, Stuart Scott completed work on this memoir. It was both a labor of love and a love letter to life itself. Not only did Stuart relate his personal story—his childhood in North Carolina, his supportive family, his athletic escapades, his on-the-job training as a fledgling sportscaster, his being hired and eventual triumphs at ESPN—he shared his intimate struggles to keep his story going. Struck by appendiceal cancer in 2007, Stuart battled this rare disease with an unimaginable tenacity and vigor. Countless surgeries, enervating chemotherapies, endless shuttling from home to hospital to office and back—Stuart continued defying fate, pushing himself through exercises and workout routines that kept him strong. He wanted to be there for his teenage daughters, Sydni and Taelor, not simply as their dad, but as an immutable example of determination and courage.

My Opinion

This is more of a placeholder to show I read the book.  I have difficulty reviewing memoirs anyway and especially in this case, there isn't much for me to say.

At first I was hesitant to read this since he had already passed away; I thought it would be too hard to read his hopes and positivity.  But he passed away before the book was published so they were able to address it in the book and that helped the tone for me.

He was very personable and funny (like when he said, "If catheters are playing the Ku Klux Klan in a football game, I'm rooting for the Klan.").

A Few Quotes from the Book

"I hate that a group of abnormal cells inside my body has such control over my life. At the same time, I can't deny that cancer has actually given me something. Because it gives every moment meaning. Because I'm on a time clock and I don't know what the time clock says. And no moments are deeper than those with my knucklehead daughters, for whom I fight every day."

"I haven't allowed myself a single Why me? moment. Because, if I start asking Why me? as it relates to cancer, I'd have to start asking Why me? as it relates to all of my good fortune: Why was I able to do this job I love? Why was I blessed with Sydni and Taelor and such a great family? Once you start questioning the bad stuff that comes you way, you have to start questioning the good - and I wouldn't trade the good for anything."

"I would never have [innocence] again. That carefree, total immersion in simple moments. From now on, whenever I laughed, it would no longer be an innocent laugh; it would instead be tinged with the bittersweet fear that I had only so many laughs remaining. That now there were finite numbers left to me: a finite number of laughs, of hours spent with the girls, of days."