As a professional firefighter, I’ve seen death close-up on more than one occasion. I’ve literally watched the light fade from a critically injured person’s eyes. But until it’s your own life that’s on the line, I don’t think most of us fully appreciate just how fragile and precious life is. 

That’s why I consider myself so lucky now. Thanks to a stage IV adrenal cancer diagnosis in 2019, I got to learn a lesson at age 32 that...