I'm not sure where I was headed professionally before cancer. I knew I was happy as a stay-at-home mom, and I didn't give much thought to what might come next. I was pretty certain I would not do what I did before kids -- college administration and counseling -- and that's as far as I'd gotten in my decision-making process. It seems cancer would have further confused my future intentions. But it didn't. Instead, it led me in a direction I may have otherwise never discovered. First, it guided me to a part-time position at my kids' preschool. Just after surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation and in the midst of Herceptin breast cancer treatment, I felt a strong urge to reenter the world of the living. One day as I was dropping off my oldest child at his Pre-K class, I noticed an advertisement on the doors of the school. I inquired within -- and got a job working two afternoons per week.
The job was a blessing. I got to see my kids while I worked, interact with loving adults and children, and distract myself from the darkness of cancer.
Gayle Shlafer is a 34-year-old wife and mother who lives in Gainesville, Florida. She is a technical writer and editor -- although her secret (or, not-so-secret anymore) ambition is to write novels. She is not ready to embark on her novel just yet, though, because breast cancer has put a lot of family plans on hold. But she considers this whole cancer thing a temporary set-back. And she is patiently waiting for a bit of normalcy to return to her world. 
