angelina jolie.

ashley, a blogger whom i absolutely adore, brought up something that has been on my mind a lot lately.

and that is boobies.

angelina jolie's boobies to be more exact.

if you haven't heard already- mrs. brad pitt had a preventive double mastectomy after a series of tests that confirmed that she carries a mutation of the BRCA1 gene, which drastically increases her risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer.

let me preface this by saying that angelina jolie is one actress i have the utmost respect and admiration for.

she's an amazing actress, she is drop dead gorgeous, and her adoption stories give me chill bumps just thinking about them. 

mainly because i want hundreds of adopted babies myself. but that's a story for another day.

so the choice she made for herself is one that i will of course respect and understand.

my roommate and i were discussing her choice the other night 

and we were talking about whether or not we would do the same thing if placed in her shoes.

my roommate said that she would definitely have the surgeries and be done with it.

she wouldn't want to worry about something that she could ultimately control.

i on the other hand don't know that i would.

and these are my reasons:

God-

i am a Christian. 

and i believe with everything that i have that God controls our fate.

His plan for our lives far exceed anything we could ever imagine.

if it is in God's plan for you to develop cancer of any kind- you will.

and i don't believe in trying to go above his plan.

cindy crane-

she was the loving mother of my best friend, stephanie, from grade school.

and she fought cancer for 11 years of her life.

she was diagnosed with breast cancer when we were in middle school... and beat it.

she had a mestectomy to remove what was left of her breasts after the cancer as a preventative measure.

(which i would do myself. i think anyone would.)

however, when we were in college her cancer came back.

but this time in her lymph nodes underneath of her arms.

by the time they caught it, it was too late and the cancer had spread everywhere.

stephanie and her now husband shawn had a special ceremony before their actual wedding day so that her mom could be there. because they were told she did not have much longer.

she lost her battle in september of 2011. 2 weeks after seeing stephanie get married.

my point with sharing her story is that we cannot play God. 

even though cindy beat her breast cancer and took the preventative measures.

it still won.

finances-

ya'll, i have amaze-balls insurance, but preventative genetic testing is not something that they cover.

and on a social worker's salary i'm sure that those tests aren't exactly reasonable.

then you have the surgeries themselves to consider.

i just had my tonsils taken out in march and even with that amazing insurance i just mentioned,

i'm now responsible for over $3000 in medical bills for something that was not a dire emergency.

oh and not to mention that boob jobs are not covered by any means. duh.

with all of this said:

i am going to be proactive.

i have had routine breast exams since i was 17.

my sorority actually hosted a class in college on how to do your own self exams.

my OBGYN is the bomb. and keeps me in check.

and if i learn that i do have cancer one of these days. 

i will fight it. with everything that i have.

and then get myself some big ol' fake boobies. 

because shit... i will deserve it.

now i want to know... 

what are your thoughts on this?

what would you do?