WP1: Rough Draft 1

I don't know the girl in the photograph. And I probably never will.

But she and I share a connection. Both of our lives have been affected by cancer.

My Grandpa died of lung cancer before I was born. I never had a chance to meet him. To play sports, celebrate holidays or enjoy his hand picked Christmas presents. He was taken from me by a terrible disease and left me in this world without a grandparent.

Then again when I was 8 years old, brain cancer took the life of my grandmother. I never had a chance to say goodbye because we were living overseas. It just wasn't right.

Unfortunately, I am not alone. Cancer contributes to 23.1% of all human deaths in the United States. To put that number in comparison, that's more than the number of people who died from diabetes, influenza, alzheimers and all other unintentional accidents combined. But that's just a statistic. And it's hard to connect with a statistic. Which is why this photograph of a young girl fighting cancer, with her mother by her side is so important.

From what we can see, it appears that this girl is being treated for cancer and fighting for her life. Unlike a number, this image puts a face on cancer and it's effect on America. When you look into the girls eyes, you feel a human connection. That's the argument I feel the photographer was trying to make when he took the picture.

The first thing I noticed when looking at this photograph is that there is no color. And I believe this was done to show the seriousness of the picture. But despite the technical aspects of the photograph, the moment it captures is filled with color. You can see and feel the love shared between a sick daughter and her mom. They care about each other. They trust each other. They would do anything for each other.

I also thought it was interesting how the photographer arranged the mom and her daughter in this picture. The daughter laying on her shoulder, with her mother's hand pressed against her back is a classic demonstration of love. They look happy in this picture. Happy simply to be together. Happy just because they are alive.

There is a contrast between the daughter and mother in the foreground, and the world behind them. Rather than include a hospital scene with nurses and medications, we instead see a dark out of focus background. I believe this represents all of the negative stuff this family is probably going through. There is no mention of costly chemotherapy, no hospital bed for the little girl to be confined to or nurse waiting with her next dose of pills.

Instead of focusing on the bad, this photograph focuses on what little good there is in this picture. And that's a smile, a smile that shows hope. The focus of the picture is on two brave people, somehow making it through another day with a positive attitude. They are refusing to be defined by the difficult circumstances around them. In just a simple frame, they are sending a deep and lasting message.

Despite statistics that show millions of young people will die from cancer in our lifetime, somehow the message often goes ignored. And to understand why this is, we must look at context. As college students, we are generally pretty healthy, care free and disinterested in the future. It's all about today and what's happening on Friday. It's not really our fault. It's just the care free world a lot of us live in.

But a picture like this can bring us crashing back down to Earth. Seeing the pain on this girl's face and knowing what she has been through, it makes us think. What if this happened to me? What if cancer attacked someone that I care about?

Perhaps this photograph is not only a call to be aware of cancer in the world. Maybe it is also a warning, that bad things can happen to anyone. Even you. If an innocent little girl can be chosen as the victim of such a terrible disease, who is to say it couldn't happen to you? And as much as we would love to look at the positives in a picture like this and hope that the girl will be ok, we also have to look at the facts. People die from cancer. She might die from cancer. Thousands do every single year.

So many people out there take their lives for granted. They waste precious moments that they will never get back. How often do we stop and think about someone else? How often do we do something for another person just because we can. It seems like that most of us, we need some sort of award or incentive to really get involved in the community. Why is it that in a country where we have so much, we have so much trouble giving even just a little back?

But I think this story can change that. This picture can you make reconsider the course that you are on. When we look at our lives, and compare them side by side with the face we see in this picture, maybe it will make us think. Our we living our lives to their full potential? Are we appreciating all of the people around us? In short, could we be doing even better?

Life is short. And the best things about life often get overlooked. Maybe this girl will send you a message. Maybe this girl will show you the light