I live with it every day
Rakoff takes pleasure in seeing the world's negative space, and rendering it vividly and accurately — but he doesn't expect everyone to take on his Half Empty worldview. Anyone who picks up his book of essays will see the yellow warning label on the cover: "WARNING: No inspirational life lessons will be found in these pages," it reads.
"I can only speak to myself," Rakoff explains. "I can only say what is true for me."Today, Rakoff lives day to day with a "baseline uncertainty" — after being treated once already for cancer, the disease has come back, and he is currently undergoing chemotherapy.
"I live with it every day," he says. "I can channel my 12-year-old, teen-girl self — where I would stand in the mirror and cry and cry to certain songs." But Rakoff says he's found that he can also "survive and thrive and have a perfectly full life."
