Brownsville, Texas—Micaela San Miguel, 53, may not be a typical college student, but nonetheless is undeniably happy to be graduating this December.
“Only one thing can keep you from getting an education and that is death,” she said.
San Miguel’s own road to graduation has been shaky.
On Christmas Eve 2002, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Since then, she has undergone chemotherapy, radiation and a mastectomy, the surgical removal of the breasts.
“It’s especially hard finding out during the holidays, but I blocked it all out for four weeks and let reality set in again in January,” she said.
San Miguel said three principal factors — family, studies and God — helped her overcome the “monster” that is cancer.
“You can’t survive something like this without the support of your family,” she said. “I owe a lot to my daughters and son.”
As for her studies, she never thought she would get a degree at her age, but her sociology professor Luis Rodriguez-Abad pushed her to continue.
“There aren’t a lot of professors that will do that for a student, but he has a great heart and encouraged me to take independent courses,” she explained.
Those courses and other credits, will earn her a degree in sociology and psychology this December from the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College.
“I wanted my daughter (Michelle, 23) to walk the stage with me,” she admitted. Michelle will graduate in the spring.
San Miguel may be walking the stage alone, but that is something she says no cancer patient should feel.
“There are so many of us in the Valley,” she exclaimed. “We have great medical services here, but no counseling, no healing of the soul.”
As a survivor, she volunteers for the American Cancer Society in its “Road to Recovery” program, which provides current victims with hospital or home visits by survivors.
“Most of them feel so good when they talk to me, because they know they can fight it,” she said. “Most people want someone they can talk to and has gone through it already.”
A constant hardship some of the victims she visits share is a negative body image. San Miguel, herself, lost most of her hair during chemotherapy.
“I just tell them it’s all temporary. You can loose your hair, just don’t loose your mind over it,” she said jokingly.
“Be happy to be alive.”
The Brownsville Herald
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