The first time I read Harry Potter, I felt like I was immersed in a world that was so surreal, yet so relatable. Amongst the fantasy, there were simple humans, with complex emotions that they were trying to work through. I was immediately hooked. Phrases became everyday quotes, magical words became adjectives and verbs. Every opportunity was a door waiting to be Alohamora’d and every challenge was met with a stern Expeliarmus! Yes, life was truly magical through my rose-tinted glasses!

In 2016, life took a different turn.

I left my homeland to live the American dream. Finding myself alone in a foreign land, I began my days and nights trying to build a new routine. Days were way too long in summers, and winters brought unimaginable cold and darkness. Jobs were few and far in between and the only conversations were with random automated calls. Slowly the magic ebbed away, and life moved to the monotone pace of a marching drum beat.

But you know, just like the many twists and turns in the Harry Potter series, life, too, throws its surprises from time to time.

2018 was that rollercoaster year.

Not the silly ones that take you through a series of loops and waves. Oh no — this was the mother of all rollercoasters.

I became a mom that year to a sweet little girl and we named her Jiyana – meaning inner strength. Our rhythm went from marching monotone to breaking the drum rock!

Days merged into diaper changes, feeds, and falling asleep on the couch with Netflix in the background.

Those rose-tinted glasses were nowhere in sight.

By the end of the year, I got in my hand a medical report with the words TNBC on it.

Triple-Negative Breast Cancer.

Cancer of the breast.

Breast. Cancer.

I was in pieces.

I was shattered.

I was broken.

Nothing in the world could prepare me for that.

Nothing at all.

Not even that darling 3-month old gurgling at me.

Very swiftly, a treatment plan was put in place and I started on this journey of chemotherapy and not knowing how to feel.

At the end of my first treatment, my husband gave me a small gift along with the words “Find the Horcrux and destroy it.”

The gift was the first book of the Harry Potter series. I started taking it with me to my treatments. I would quote from it whenever the nurses stopped by for a chat, regale other patients with theories about the characters and even throw in a spell or two!

I found the magic again in the most unexpected of ways.

See cancer was hard.

No, it was brutal.

But you know, it was like my own personal search for Horcruxes. The random object that has some really evil sorcery hidden. It takes a piece of you each time you are poked and prodded, and with each piece, you are left feeling vulnerable. But with each piece, you find a different side to yourself. A side you never knew existed. And with every new side, you discover just how strong you really are.

You get up, let out a war cry, Avada Kedavra, and destroy that evil Horcrux.

“Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times if only one remembers to turn on the light”- Albus Dumbledore