The Student Room Group

I'm 16 and I have terminal cancer

Not me personally. This opinion piece was in the Guardian today, an amazing story from a 16 year old boy who has terminal cancer but who has dealt with it with great equanimity and wisdom.

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/mar/19/im-16-five-months-ago-i-was-diagnosed-with-terminal-cancer

He has a blog called The Anonymous Revolutionary, which is about Marxism in the modern world, and he is actually already a published author (his writings from his blog were collected together to make a book which was put out by a small but respectable publishing house). If you'd like to see his blog, here's a link

http://theanonymousrevolutionary.com/

What are your thoughts about being in that situation? I can't imagine what it would be like to be 16 and know that you will not live long enough to go to university, to have sex, to have a career and a family. I suppose the consolation of death is that it doesn't hurt to be dead, and you don't realise you are dead. I don't think humans fear death per se, because, as I said, we know it doesn't hurt to be dead. What we label fear is actually a deep sense of sadness at the idea of not being able to continue our consciousness. We like being alive and we don't want it to stop.

Anyway, the floor is yours
(edited 8 years ago)

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Interesting and inspiring article.
Reply 2
I saw this the other day

[video="youtube;UAaEw_EB7Ws"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAaEw_EB7Ws[/video]

Cried a river

I don't know what I would do... I think I would cry a bunch, then come to terms with it, then try and get a bucket list thing done, and then die.
I almost cried before I clicked the thread link. You should have added quotation marks.

Spoiler

Original post by TheArtofProtest
You don't have to be 16 to engage in sexual intercourse but you're really not helping your chances by being a Marxist.


I'd disagree. I actually think it's easier to get laid if you're a Marxist.
Original post by champ_mc99
I almost cried before I clicked the thread link. You should have added quotation marks.

Spoiler



Sorry. I admit it was clickbaity, I did consider quotation marks but thought I should just get it out there. I wanted as many people as possible to see it
A shame he won't live long enough to learn that Marxism is evil
Reply 7
Oh, Marxist? I cannot say I'll miss him.
(edited 8 years ago)
With life you must also have death. You just suck it up and keep on moving forward.
He's actually pretty cute, but he'd never go out with me - with have completely opposite political views.
Original post by EccentricDiamond
A shame he won't live long enough to learn that Marxism is evil


That's so true. I think he seems like an interesting and thoughtful boy, if he does live then I think he has a lot to contribute.

I was a Marxist when I was 15/16 too and there is something a bit superficial about it. You're old enough to read up on Marxist theory, internalise it and regurgitate it in an analysis, but not old enough to have any sense of real life and the practical considerations of political ideas that incorporated into your political ideas in a way that what you're writing is actually insightful and valuable.
Original post by TheArtofProtest

Consent has nothing to do with whether one is able to engage in such acts


A minority of people lose their virginity at 15 or younger, so I assumed he's probably average in that sense.
Original post by Cato the Elder
He's actually pretty cute


It's a bit wrong, but I thought he's really cute too :colondollar:
We live and die. Some have more time, others don't. It's the way it is. And yes, that title was extremely clickbaity and very douche by you OP. Shame on you.
Que thread descending into why he is an idiot for being a Marxist.
Original post by BeastOfSyracuse
That's so true. I think he seems like an interesting and thoughtful boy, if he does live then I think he has a lot to contribute.

I was a Marxist when I was 15/16 too and there is something a bit superficial about it. You're old enough to read up on Marxist theory, internalise it and regurgitate it in an analysis, but not old enough to have any sense of real life and the practical considerations of political ideas that incorporated into your political ideas in a way that what you're writing is actually insightful and valuable.


I was a totalitarian revolutionary Christian socialist when I was 15...
Original post by z33
I saw this the other day

[video="youtube;UAaEw_EB7Ws"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAaEw_EB7Ws[/video]

Cried a river

I don't know what I would do... I think I would cry a bunch, then come to terms with it, then try and get a bucket list thing done, and then die.


:cry2: oh my god.
Original post by BeastOfSyracuse


I was a Marxist when I was 15/16 too and there is something a bit superficial about it. You're old enough to read up on Marxist theory, internalise it and regurgitate it in an analysis, but not old enough to have any sense of real life and the practical considerations of political ideas that incorporated into your political ideas in a way that what you're writing is actually insightful and valuable.


You can say that about al lot of teenagers with any idealism of all kinds of political persuasions.

The idea that my phone was made in a Chinese sweatshop and my relatively easy existence is propped up by foreign labour is not disjointed from reality at all.

Original post by Cato the Elder
I was a totalitarian revolutionary Christian socialist when I was 15...


Yeah well I thought UKIP were good when I was a teenager. Then I matured into the disgusting lefty I am now.

Like most state school normals I had very little political understanding of anything. I was probably a bit ahead since I knew who Gordon Brown was unlike some of my friends. I was incredibly susceptible to ******** narratives of things like labour spent too much and caused the 2008 recession.
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by Lawbringer
We live and die. Some have more time, others don't. It's the way it is.


Deep

And yes, that title was extremely clickbaity and very douche by you OP. Shame on you.


Don't you think you're taking this just a bit too personally? There are probably far more relevant issues to save your outrage for.
Reply 19
Original post by ravioliyears
:cry2: oh my god.


Yuppp... let's count our blessings :cry:

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