SULEIKA JAOUAD
Penning Resilience: Winning Over Illness through Writing
(Beowulf Sheehan)
“Writing can be a way of metabolizing experiences, a way of transmuting pain into something meaningful. It’s a way of being active in your own recovery, a way of saying: this happened, and it hurt, and it is still with me, but I am here.”
Suleika Jaouad (pronounced su-LAKE-uh ja-WAD) is an acclaimed writer, author, advocate and cancer survivor. From her Emmy Award-winning New York Times column and video diary, “Life, Interrupted” to her book Between Two Kingdoms, A Memoir of a Life Interrupted, and her appearance in the documentary “American Symphony”, Suleika Jaouad is a champion of dialogue, sharing her deeply personal experience of living with cancer with candor, vulnerability and resilience.
Life, Interrupted
Born on July 5, 1988, in New York City, Suleika grew up in a culturally diverse household. Her father, a native of Tunisia, is professor of French at Skidmore College, while her mother, originally from Switzerland, is an artist. At just 22 years old, shortly after graduating from university, Suleika's dreams of becoming an overseas war correspondent were dashed by her devastating diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia, with only a 35% chance of survival.
Drawing from her inner strength and determination, Suleika transformed her crushing setback into an opportunity, chronicling her experience as a young cancer patient in her New York Times column, “Life, Interrupted”, which instantly resonated with the readers.
“Isolated in the oncology ward, I began to think about my dream to become a writer. What could I possibly write about now? Where could I travel if I was stuck to an IV pole? Maybe the story wasn’t in a faraway land but right in front of me. I hadn’t chosen this story — it had chosen me. But I decided to accept the challenge.”
— Life, Interrupted: A Golden Opportunity
Her remarkable ability to convey raw emotion and vulnerability while articulating complex experiences in a relatable manner, from intimate details of her treatment journey to the profound insights she gained about life, friendships, and resilience along the way, draws readers into her world, evoking empathy and understanding.
“Slowly, I began to report from the frontlines of my hospital bed, first in journals, and then, in a hastily put together blog. Cancer isn’t something that makes you want to share, it’s something that makes you want to hide. The shift from telling other people’s stories to writing in the first person about something so personal was difficult. After all, cancer isn’t exactly something you update on your LinkedIn profile. But I knew this much: writing about what was happening to me felt good, even when my body didn’t.”
— Life, Interrupted: A Golden Opportunity
Inspired by journalist Amy Goodman’s words, “The responsibility of a journalist is to travel where the silence is,” Suleika has traveled into silent spaces. Through her work, she has shed light on the psychosocial challenges confronting many cancer survivors as they reintegrate back into society, the steep price tag that comes along with cancer, as well as bringing attention to the lack of representation in the bone marrow registry of minority and mixed ethnic groups.
Life, Interrupted, Again
In the documentary, “American Symphony,” Suleika, alongside her partner, musician Jon Batiste, opens up about the highs and lows of their lives as she goes through her second bone marrow transplant after finding out that her leukemia had returned after 10 years in remission. All of this while Jon is at the height of his career, winning five Grammys and preparing the performance of his first-ever symphony at Carnegie Hall.
As they navigate through a harrowing experience together, Suleika and Jon give the viewers behind-the-scenes access to what it means for two contrasting worlds to exist and what it means to continue moving forward with your life in the midst of uncertainty.
“It was hard. It was a conversation that we had to continually reassess. . . I really wanted to show what it means to be in the trenches of treatment while also moving forward with your life. Because you have to. And you know, without knowing how that story was going to end, we didn't know if this documentary was going to have a tragic ending or a happy one or one in between.”
— Jon Batiste and Suleika Jaouad discuss American Symphony on NPR
While undergoing tough treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic, and severely isolated because of her vulnerability to infection, Suleika created “The Isolation Journals,” a community creativity project to help others convert isolation into artistic solitude that has now been joined by over 100,000 people around the world.
Suleika’s response to her journey through illness has shaped her into a beacon of hope and inspiration, while her writing style, marked by its honesty and vulnerability, allows readers to connect with her on a profound level. Suleika's passion for life, her advocacy for others facing similar challenges, and her unwavering commitment to sharing her experiences make her a remarkable individual.
Food for Thought
How does Suleika's openness about her cancer journey inspire you to start conversations about difficult topics in your own life?
What creative activities do you turn to in tough times, and why?
What can we learn from Suleika's story about staying strong, finding happiness in small things, and facing tough times with courage?
More Quotes from Suleika Jaouad
“Living with cancer has been terrifying, but in some ways, it’s also made me feel fearless and like anything is possible. It’s taught me that time is precious and that I need to go for the things I want — not tomorrow, but today. After all, what do I have to lose?”
“In the midst of doctor’s appointments and long hospitalizations I tried to organize my days around small acts of happiness by asking myself: What will make me feel better right now? How do I handle the worry I’m feeling right in this moment? Gone were the vague worries about a future career. Sometimes the answer to those questions was writing in my journal, visiting with friends and family, or eating peanut butter cups and watching bad romantic comedies. On other days, it meant having a good cry under my comforter. Little did I know, I was building muscles along the way — not lats and biceps, but invisible muscles that now kick in to carry me through stressful situations.”
“I used to think healing meant ridding the body and the heart of anything that hurt. It meant putting your pain behind you, leaving it in the past. But I’m learning that’s not how it works. Healing is figuring out how to coexist with the pain that will always live inside of you, without pretending it isn’t there or allowing it to hijack your day. It is learning to confront ghosts and to carry what lingers. It is learning to embrace the people I love now instead of protecting against a future in which I am gutted by their loss.”
“Every single one of us will have our life interrupted, whether it’s by the rip cord of a diagnosis or some other kind of heartbreak or trauma that brings us to the floor. We need to find ways to live in the in-between place, managing whatever body and mind we currently have. Sometimes, all it takes is the ingenuity of a handmade game of Scrabble or finding that stripped-down kind of meaning in the love of family and a night on the ballroom dance floor, of that radical, dangerous hope.”
Sources:
American Symphony: Become a Lifesaver
NPR.org - Jon Batiste and Suleika Jaouad share journey of 'two extremes' in American Symphony
