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Jury seated in Con-ui capital murder trial

<p>I never thought I&#8217;d lose friends because I&#8217;m sick. And not a sick that&#8217;s get some medications from a doctor.</p><p>Sick as in weekly trips to Philadelphia for treatment, sick as in hanging out at home because I&#8217;m too weak to move.</p><p>And I&#8217;m not singling anyone out in particular because that&#8217;s not entirely fair to them.</p><p>I happened to get sick within a year of my college graduation, so some of my college buddies (you know, they ones they say &#8220;will be around forever&#8221;) and I never had a chance to keep our friendships blooming.</p><p>In all the meetings I had with doctors about my cancer, none of them told me about this side effect. Truthfully, this is the one that hurts the most. Cancer is a life-threatening illness, but the feeling of abandonment from close friends was devastating.</p><p>Sure, I get it, I think.</p><p>When your in your 20s, sleepovers and play dates aren&#8217;t typical. That&#8217;s left for the younger children. We sophisticated, working-class adults want to go for a wine-and-cheese tasting, a night at the bar or going to see a movie in the theater followed by shopping.</p><p>One-by-one friends I hung out with were shying away from coming to my house for dinner or ordering pizza. I tried to think up reasons why. Do I smell funny (meds sometimes do smell funny)? Could it just be me? Could our lives be that boring?</p><p>Or maybe they were just sick of the cancer that consumed my life; just because I was stuck with it didn&#8217;t mean my friends had to go there, too.</p><p>But then a core group of friends, who I&#8217;ve talked about in my column often, would still make the trip to the house because they wanted to be with me. They wanted to find out about my illness. So, I knew it wasn&#8217;t me or my boring life.</p><p>I know that everyone had good intentions (I hope). They wanted to let me go so I can get better and rejoin them on the path of life. We all need to protect ourselves and each person has their burdens to bear.</p><p>As I scoured the internet to see if people like me had the same issue, I realized this is common.</p><p>Is it my fault I&#8217;m sick? No, in my case it&#8217;s tainted genetics.</p><p>Is it my friends fault they&#8217;ve drifted away? No, some friendships can&#8217;t handle a big life change.</p><p>I just have a different focus, and I&#8217;m on a different path now.</p><p>I&#8217;ve learned never to take my family and the friends I have for granted. The friends that stuck around, I love them more deeply now.</p><p>Does it hurt that I&#8217;ve lost friends I didn&#8217;t want to lose, sure. I hang onto photos and memories of time gone by because at some point their friendship was cherished by me. I look at life differently now, and I have some very good and very bad days.</p><p>But thank you to the friends who never gave up on me.</p><p>To the friends who took some time off from our friendship, know that I would love to resume our friendship and will be here when they do. The door is always open if they ever want to come back.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">8/1/2014 The Times Leader AIMEE DILGER</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/web1_Melanie-Mizenko.jpg</photo0><caption0>8/1/2014 The Times Leader AIMEE DILGER</caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/web1_Melanie-Mizenko-toned.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">8/1/2014 The Times Leader AIMEE DILGER</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/web1_Melanie-Mizenko-toned.jpg</photo1><caption1>8/1/2014 The Times Leader AIMEE DILGER</caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Melanie Mizenko</p><p>mmizenko@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Melanie Mizenko at 570-991-6116 or on Twitter @TL_MMizenko</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Beyond the Byline: Missing some old friends, but ready to welcome them back