Life, Anxiety, & Direction
There's Always Next Year
By AG
OCTOBER 31, 2026 · 9 MIN READ
Prefer listening? Hear the full essay, narrated by me. (13 min)
I was brainwashed at a young age to be a Browns fan by my dad.
Although my Gram and Pap are die-hard Steelers fans, my dad was able to corrupt me before them.
My Pap used to have an inflatable Steelers man in front of his house, and I would run up to it, yell, “I hate you, Steeler Man!” and punch it.
My dad wasn’t the only one who brainwashed me. My best friend Gavin’s parents, Steve and Carol, took me to games, training camp, and even told me a story that a Steelers fan assaulted Carol.
Those scoundrels from Pittsburgh! Hitting my second mom? That’s just not okay.
Now, whether that story is true or just another attempt to brainwash me, I’ll never know. But it worked.
I developed a hatred for them, as they are the Browns’ biggest rival.
However, the Browns have been at the bottom of the barrel for years. Most people would have given up on them, but I’ve learned to have a sense of hope.
It may not be our time this year, but there’s always next year. And the year after that. And the year after that.
Being a Browns fan is not always fun, yet I’ve realized that I wouldn’t want it any other way.
You’re always going to have to overcome things in life, and it might take years, months, or weeks to get over them. But you have to have hope.
Fortunately, I have a support system of fellow Browns fans, including my cousin Kevin and his sister, Sara.
We may not see each other all the time (Kevin is in Arkansas and Sara is in Cali), but we have a pretty strong bond, regardless of the fact that they’re way older than me (I’m not trying to call them old, haha). And, of course, we love talking about those Brownies.
Sara is a badass. She works in the video game industry, lives in California, loves sports, and is open-minded.
Could I possibly ask for a better or cooler older cousin? Even if I could, I can’t change the fact that she’s part of my crazy Italian family.
Not only is she a great cousin, but she’s also a great mom to her son, Charlie.
Back to the story.
Life Has Other Plans
At the start of the year, Sara received some surprising news when she went in for her routine mammogram checkup.
She was feeling pretty normal. Just another appointment, and she’d be on her way. At least, that’s what she thought.
The scan showed something abnormal, which led to another series of tests, including multiple mammograms, ultrasounds, an MRI, and biopsies. After months of being poked and prodded, she received the news in March that she had breast cancer.
It may be Halloween, and there are all these 10-foot-tall skeletons, zombies, and ghouls out, but none of that can be as scary as a breast cancer diagnosis.
She’s young, in the middle of her career in the video game industry, all while taking care of her son alongside her husband, Jacob.
Her life took a major turn in a matter of seconds.
To make matters worse, in May, she underwent a lumpectomy with bilateral reduction surgery to remove the cancer, which covered a pretty large area.
After going through a long surgery and recovery, she received even more unfortunate news. The surgeons hadn’t gotten clear margins, meaning cancer cells were found at the edges of the removed tissue.
Imagine going through months of appointments, tests, and biopsies, finally having surgery, and then finding out that it wasn’t enough.
All that time spent preparing and recovering, only to realize she was going to have to go through another difficult process.
The future was full of uncertainty and possibly horrible outcomes. Of course, you can’t remain positive all the time. Everyone has moments when they’re scared or afraid.
If being a Browns fan has taught me anything, it’s that things aren’t always going to go your way. Sometimes all you can do is hold on to a little hope and figure out what comes next.
She had no idea where this was going to go, and she already had so much on her plate. But being the badass she is, she kept that same positive mindset and was ready to give breast cancer hell.
Can't Change It
When Sara shared her story on Facebook, she explained a philosophy that helped her navigate everything she was going through.
“Something I lean on is Hal Elrod’s five-minute rule: when bad news hits, you let yourself feel all of it — cry, complain, be angry — for ‘five minutes’. When the time is up, you say three words: ‘Can’t change it’ and move forward. It’s not about pretending I’m fine or ignoring the reality of the diagnosis. It’s about deciding how long I’ll stay in that place before I turn back toward what I can still control. So I didn’t complain or get down. I just put my head down and went to work on a plan.”
— Sara, from her Facebook post
She did exactly that and worked with her breast surgeon and oncologist to figure out what came next.
Sara is very into health and organic products. She also works for Counter, formerly known as Beautycounter, a company focused on skincare and beauty products.
They have a really nice charcoal mask that my aunt would get me every year for Christmas. It’s so nice.
Honestly, if there were some magical organic way to get rid of cancer, Sara probably would’ve been the first person to find it.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t going to be that simple.
Sara spent countless hours looking into her options and meeting with doctors. After everything she’d already gone through, she had another big decision to make.
Eventually, she decided that a double mastectomy with DIEP flap reconstruction was the best option for her to put breast cancer in its place.
I can’t imagine having to make a decision like that, especially after already going through one surgery. But Sara had a plan, and she was ready to move forward.
A Brand-New Beginning
She traveled to San Antonio, Texas, for the procedure.
And rather than me trying to explain what that day meant to her, I’ll let Sara tell you herself.
“After months of prep, on the morning of September 14th, I walked into the hospital for my surgery.
Eight hours later, when I woke, Jacob read to me that day’s passage from his book “A Year of Positive Thinking.”
I don’t believe in coincidences. That surgery was my new beginning and now is my time to “start anew.”
I am still recovering and healing, but I write this to say goodbye to the cancer in my body, take back my power and start my “bright, brand-new beginning.””
— Sara, from her Facebook post
Something Worth Hoping For
Nothing is a coincidence, and everything happens for a reason. We may not always know the reason, but I believe you can learn something from every obstacle you encounter, no matter how big or small.
Sara entered one of the scariest times of her life, but she didn’t let it stop her. She knew she couldn’t change what had happened. Instead of looking at it as a roadblock, she looked for a detour.
It’s going to take longer, and it may look different than you expected, but along the way, you take a journey, learn new things about yourself, and hopefully reach your destination.
I admire Sara for many reasons. Clearly, she’s my older cousin, and that fact alone earns her my admiration. But what I admire most is that she continued to have hope for a better future, even when things weren’t going according to plan.
She kept her story private for a while before recently sharing it on Facebook. She knew that by opening up about her experience, she might be able to help someone else going through something similar.
Can you tell we’re cousins now? We’re both out here trying to help others and talk about difficult subjects.
I’d like to think being Browns fans played a role in that, or maybe there’s just something about being from Northeast Ohio.
Man, I sound like LeBron right now.
Seriously, though, I think mindset plays a huge role in how we approach life’s challenges. It’s not always easy to stay positive, and nobody should feel like they have to be strong every second of every day. Sometimes getting through the day is an accomplishment in itself.
But I think there’s something to be said about getting back up, doing your best with what you can control, and holding on to hope even when you don’t know what comes next.
Sara’s story is also an important reminder to take care of yourself. She had no symptoms when she went in for her mammogram, and that routine screening helped catch something she didn’t even know was there.
If there’s one thing she wants people to take away from her experience, it’s to stay on top of their health and talk to their doctors about getting screened.
Now, I can’t promise the Browns will ever win a Super Bowl. However, I hope we have plenty more seasons of cheering for those Brownies together.
It may not be our year. Maybe it’ll be next year, the year after that, or the one after that.
But no matter what happens on Sundays, we’ll always have something worth hoping for.
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