I was open about it

I am not necessarily a private person, but I'm not that public either. It might have been a little out of character for me, but I decided to tell my circle of friends immediately upon diagnosis. I called a handful of friends the first day, and I called all the rest that I felt should hear it from me personally the following day. I sent out texts to more people in the weeks that followed. (We told family as we could. Most we told the first day, but for anyone who was on vacation or for whom it was otherwise not a good time, we waited until it was a better time for them.)  All in all, I'm glad I did it this way. I did get emotional each time I told someone (which is totally fine, but crying is exhausting). Luckily it got easier and easier to say the words "breast cancer" the more I talked about it. I think people appreciated hearing the news from me, and my friends rallied around me right away. I feel like a lot of my relationships got stronger as a result of being public about my cancer and letting people be there for me. (It sounds weird to say I "let" people be there for me, but that's the word that they used.)