I can't say that I have ever dealt with an extreme illness, such as cancer, but I have met a lot of people suffering from cancer. I have expressed my sympathy and empathy for the many patients as much as I can because I truly feel bad for them and am sorry that they have to deal with this. It is quite normal for people to express sympathy and empathy for people that are suffering from cancer as we know. However, it is not common for people to think of what those suffering are thinking of others. This statement by Sherman Alexie is very interesting because it is something that I can see many cancer patients feeling towards others and the envy that they may feel towards them.

I found this section of his "My Kafka Baggage" story to be very interesting. To be honest, I sometimes feel this way when it comes to toys where I think about what their story is when people aren't around and I like to keep them near other toys. Anyways, I find this interesting because through a medical perspective this cockroach can be related to a patient going through illness. This was my first connection that I made, acknowledging that patients tend to feel very alone even if they have family around. I volunteer at the James Cancer Hospital and deal with a lot of patients. A big thing that comes to mind when I see all of them there is the many different stories each of them have and how they got there. Unfortunately, most people don't take the time to actually get to know these patients' stories. I believe that this connection that I made could be one of the reasons that Sherman Alexie included this story.