What is a Survivor?

When I hear the word “survivor”, I think about someone who lived through unthinkable and extraordinary circumstances, such as slavery, the Holocaust, or 9/11. I certainly do think of myself when I hear the word, yet I received the label a number of years ago after undergoing treatments for a serious health diagnosis. While frightening initially, in retrospect, the treatments were tolerable, and my story had a happy ending. Certainly, my health "scare" ordeal paled in comparison to other difficult things that I have endured in my life and lived to tell about; nevertheless, I will always be regarded as a survivor because of the health issue. I have never been comfortable with this identity, and I think we use the term too loosely.