Craig Corbet : Surviror and Optimist

Craig looking into the distance to see what his future holds

By: Paige Topole

“Wanna hear about the time I ran away from the cops?”. This is a common theme in many of Craig Corbetts storie’s. Joyfully, he gives a sly smile and continues his story:“Well the police were chasing my friend and I. Well we were coming home from school and we acciden-tally made an illegal u-turn and a cop on a motorcycle saw us, we saw him turning around to go chase us and we thought well we will probably go get a ticket. And I said nope, we are gunna give him a run for his money. So we floored it while we saw him making a u-turn and we got away!” I’ve always heard the most intrigu-

ing stories about my uncle, Craig Corbett. It always amazes me about how crazy he was as a teenager, and how I can still see that enthusiasm in him as an adult. Stories about how he built a log cabin when he was still in the womb or how he killed a tiger with his bare hands always make talking to him an adventure. Then a year and a half ago I found out that he had cancer, and I thought that it would change him and break his spirit. How-ever, when I saw him again, even though it was obvious that the dis-ease had a physical toll on him, he still was smiling and laughing, like

nothing had happened. It baffled me how someone could remain so positive during such tough times.Craig’s stories have always been entertaining, though after a month of talking and spending time with Craig, I realized that they go beyond just crazy run-ins; they describe his life. There is always a bad guy (most of his stories it’s the cops), a good guy (him), and a dramatic con-flict where the bad guy and good guy’s paths collide. Craig’s battle with cancer can be seen in these stories (the bad guy being cancer, and the good guy being Craig),

Craig, happily runs along the beach.

where he is able to overcome his run-in with cancer and not let it change him negatively. Most peo-ple would react very differently if they were in his position, though like in his stories he is able to react and look at the experience posi-tively. Craig’s attitude had a dra-matic impact on his situation, he has proven how important it is to be optimistic in difficult times and why it is the best way to overcome any challenge. If I were to describe Craig in three words they would be: crazy, enthusiastic and optimistic. Right away you can tell that Craig wants to be the funniest guy in the room. He knows how to work an audience, and this ability makes him very well liked by everyone that he meets. These are the traits that helped Craig overcome one of the biggest challenges that he has ever faced. There are tons of people that

are faced with his challenge. In fact, “There are almost 14 million peo-ple in the U.S. today who are cancer survivors. Three out of every four American families will have at least one family member diagnosed with cancer” (National Cancer Institute). Of these people the ones that have been able to overcome the challenge of cancer the best are the ones that don’t just view it as a burden but who accept it as a new way of life. Craig is a busy guy: balanc-ing work, family and extremely ad-venturous activities. In 1981 Craig decided, with the help of his father, that becoming a general contractor would be a good idea. With the help of the housing bubble, Craig was was able to ride the market up and down building homes and compa-nies. He is married to Nancy Cor-bett, who he has known since he was 16. He met her when she was

just 14 years old, and the minute they met, it became apparent that they were meant to be. Years later they have two kids together, two houses and two lucrative jobs, Craig as a general contractor and Nancy as Kaiser nurse. Everything seemed to be going perfectly, and together they were about to take a two month cruise, all was good until Craig no-ticed a lump under his arm in 2011. On December 27th Nan-cy was checking on Craig’s health record to see the results of the test that he had two weeks about the mysterious lump. According the the teary eyed Nancy regarding what happened the day she found out that Craig had cancer : “Well I was checking his results all the time on his health record, and on our anni-versary I saw that it was melanoma.

Even simple actions like putting on a sweater are increadibly difficult for Craig, and his one arm.

I was actually the person that told him. I went in with my family and we all started crying and I flew home a couple hours later. It’s not a good diagnosis. It is one of the most difficult cancers to overcome.” Melanoma is the most dan-gerous type of skin cancer. The danger of the melanoma depends on three factors: how early it was caught, how deep it is, and where it is. “If caught early, some melano-mas can be cured. Melanoma that is very deep or has spread to the lymph nodes is more likely to return after treatment. If it is deeper than 4 mm or has spread to the lymph nodes, you are more likely to have the cancer spread to other tissues and organs. Melanoma usually can-not be cured when the cancer has spread beyond the skin” (A.D.A.M. Medical Encyclopedia), years before Craig had received a similar diagno-sis and he was very well aware that the “ risk for melanoma is increased once you have had this cancer. Melanoma may return years later”

(A.D.A.M. Medical Encyclopedia). However, this time his cancer was even more serious than his previous battle. This is the point in Craig’s life when he had the option to go down two very different paths; one path that was optimistic and the other path that could have looked at his condition as a complete limitation. Due to the cancer’s location, some worried that it could spread to his heart or brain. So to be safe, Craig decided that he would have a radiation treatment. Craig claims that there was a ¼ chance of some-one being negatively affected by the radiation, and unfortunately he was apart of that ¼ that had negative side effects. Along with destroying the cancer in his arm, the radiation also damaged some important nerves, that now limit his usage of his arm. Slowly he is losing the ability to use his arm and participate in all the ac-tivities that require two arms. Even in chronic pain, Craig is still able to joke about what happened to him, and how being able to live in his

condition proves that he is stronger than most people. Although Craig does joke around still, he does ac-knowledge the fact that there is a lot that he is missing out on. He men-tioned that before he was diagnosed with cancer he had just bought all new ski equipment and a season pass to his favorite slope, which un-fortunately he was never able to use. However, that doesn’t mean Craig is willing to accept a life of being completely limited; in fact, he still has hope that he will one day be able to return to a modified version of his original lifestyle. Although he may never be able to behave as crazy as he did in his childhood, maybe it’s best that he is no longer running away from the cops, like when him and Nancy were together:“There were dirt roads and helicop-ters were following us. We were in a parking lot and he was backfiring the entire time. We saw people stand-ing outside of the church pointing at us, so we ditched the car, and we were all dressed up for church and we were able get past the cops. Lat-er that night we went to get his car.” One important step to fighting his cancer, Craig believes, is to remain optimistic. In fact, he believes that it is his view on can-cer that has prevented him from spiraling into a dark place, which is very understandable. According to Nancy, his wife, to make him stay optimistic, “We make sure that he makes the most of every day. For every one negative comment he has to say two positive comments. Be-cause actually focusing on the neg-atives changes your brain complex and your endorphins. So he will be involved in some therapy that is try-ing to change his brain chemistry”.

Craig and Nancy are all smiles at their home in Santa Cruz.

Works CitedA.D.A.M. Medical Encyclopedia, Melanoma, 4 May 2012. Web. 23 August 2012. American Psychological Associa-tion, Managing Traumatic Stress: Tips for Recovering from Disas-ters and other Traumatic Events, August 2011. Web. 23 Aug 2012.Corbett, Craig. Personal Interview. 6 September 2012.Corbett, Nancy, Personal Inter-view. 16 September 2012. National Cancer Institute, Facing Forward: Life After Cancer Treat-ment, 23 Aug 2012.

The ability to stay positive in such a position where some-one could spiral off into a dark place, not only shows what kind a person Craig is, though also the importance of positive thought. For a rare moment of serious-ness, Craig explains to us why he hasn’t been depressed in his situa-tion : “If you got to the point where you were depressed you could go down hill. If you lose that opti-mism then you could go anywhere. Like when I was camping, even though I was in pain, it could be worse. I look at myself and I think I am the luckiest guy in the world.” The reason why he picked the posi-tive route is because he knows what an impact that even a smile could have on his mind and body. All the drugs in the world can’t make some-one honestly happy, and something like happiness could completely change how you view an experience, so in a sense, Craig’s ability to remain optimistic could be seen as more beneficial than what the therapies could ever have done. After all, Craig never let his battle with cancer de-

fine him; instead, he let it shape him. Although cancer is terrible there is a lot more to the disease, such as the effect that it has on the person. In fact, “Many people with cancer de-scribe their experience as a journey. It’s not necessarily a journey they would have chosen for themselves. But it sometimes presents the oppor-tunity to look at things in a different way.”(American Psychological Asso-ciation) When I was talking to Craig, this idea was brought up multiple times by him. Cancer has changed his life, some for the worse and some for the better. The idea that now he lives everyday to it’s fullest is defi-nitely one of the things that cancer has made him appreciate. He knows that what he knows today might be totally different and in between those six week scans every day is the best day of his life, which is something that many people who haven’t faced the idea of their death as a looming factor. His new motto after his battle with cancer is now, “To live every-day”, which is a motto that every-one should live by, because we never know what could happen tomorrow.

Although Craig doesn’t know what his future will hold, he does know that he will live life the most he can in every day. Maybe one day in the future Craig and Nancy will be able to take that two-month cruise or go scuba diving somewhere exotic. Whatever they do, their future is still an open book. Craig will continue to work and travel as long as he can, and one day when they don’t want to work or travel anymore they will settle down in a house in San Diego near their oldest son Joe. Together they will keep each other optimistic, because when you look at life with a “glass half full” mentality overcom-ing challenges becomes easy. In the end Craig doesn’t know what will happen tomorrow, though if he were to die tomorrow he wouldn’t be sad, because he knows that he has lived a full life. As normal Craig finds a way to joke about such as heavy topic, says, “Because if I get to the point where I think I might be going, I know my children will take care of me. There’s this cave in Nevada where there’s a hole that doesn’t stop.”