About this episode
In 2022, Christina D. George says, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and everything seemed to demand a decision right away. What she learned about sitting with a choice before making it is the heart of her book and her keynotes.
This one's with Christina, a keynote speaker and storyteller who also teaches English to adult learners at OTC. She walks through the diagnosis, the drive out to California she took to clear her head, and why she wants to help people through the times when life pivots. We also get into the book she's finishing and the resource list she's putting in the back of it, a television shoot in Miami about resilience, and E.T. Books, her book-review project.
Then she takes us back to 17, when she says she learned her kidneys had never formed. She talks about dialysis, a transplant from her dad, two more transplants after that, the donors she's grateful for, and what it all taught her about empathy and speaking up for yourself.
Recorded in Christina's living room. Thanks to Christina for having us in.
Find Christina: https://christinadgeorge.wixsite.com/speaker
Chapters
- 0:00Life pivots, and the pressure to decide right away
- 0:35Teaching English to adults at OTC
- 2:10How she fell into speaking
- 4:14The 2022 diagnosis
- 6:21"Universe, did you misunderstand me?"
- 7:54Making the decision on her own terms
- 9:01"I've done this before": where the book came from
- 11:40Writing since second grade
- 13:45A television shoot in Miami
- 16:22What kind of events she speaks at
- 17:26"Sometimes we need permission to take the space"
- 18:32E.T. Books: reviewing books on video
- 20:39What's in the book, and the resource list at the back
- 23:21When there's no time to sit with it
- 25:26Who the book is for
- 28:33Reaching doctors and patients with it
- 30:05Breast cancer awareness, and the men who get it too
- 31:41Kidneys that never formed: what happened at 17
- 37:04An orthodontist appointment, then dialysis that day
- 39:44"I don't have to feel bad about being Christina anymore"
- 43:04Her dad's kidney, and the first transplant
- 45:13What the transplant taught her about empathy
- 48:23Growing up in the middle
- 50:59Jobs, bosses, and leaving on her own terms
- 54:41The aunt and uncle who taught her to trust herself
- 61:34What she's grateful for
- 63:09Her donors: "I am not cold anymore"
- 67:54Advice for her 17-year-old self
- 70:00Being seen, and why she tells the story
- 71:05How to outline a story that big
- 74:18Where to find her
Watch or listen
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