Each person with cancer or any other illness has their own individual set of strategies. We can call it anything we want: war, journey, battle, pit stop, path, detour. Our illnesses are our little unwelcome pets; we get to name them and treat them however we want. There is no wrong approach. We do what’s right for ourselves because in the end we want to feel better by whatever means necessary. No matter what we call it, we know this: we want our bodies to win.

The United States seems to be moving backwards right now. There are so many other wars raging: racial, social, basic civil rights. The list goes on. The war that’s pushing my buttons is the war on women. Right now, yesterday, and since the beginning of time, a small group of men (and some misguided women) have been trying to regulate our bodies. In 2014, there were approximately 500 restrictions introduced by state legislators intended to limit, control, or otherwise regulate women’s reproductive rights. Our bodies are getting talked about behind closed doors – and publicly – by Congress, the House, the Senate, the White House. Our vaginas are being discussed in legal terms. By the way, in 2014 there were no comparable bills introduced to regulate men’s reproductive health care. Zero. Zip. Nada.

Clearly, women are just baby making machines. We are nothing more than a womb to these people. They’re trying to pass more and more laws about what we can and cannot do with our vaginas and uteruses. They are encroaching deeper and deeper into our personal territory. When will they start legislating our breasts? Oh, you want regular mammograms? We decided we’re not going to pay for them until you’re 50. What’s that, your breast has cancer in it? No, you can’t have it removed; It’s against our new breast laws. Breasts first! What’s to stop these politicians from creeping 12 inches up our bodies? Women make 70% of what men do, politicians keep trying to re-define the word rape, aid is cut to low-income mothers, the life of a fetus is put before the life of the mother. What’s to say our breasts aren’t next?

I’m not sure who I’m more pissed at, the politicians or the people who vote for them. They keep working to take away my rights away year after year, bill after ridiculous bill. Billions of taxpayers dollars get spent to regulate things like a woman’s reproductive rights, gay marriage, and immigration, and we can’t cure cancer or eradicate the common cold. Good job, America, good job.