Being Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you all are enjoying your day and time with your families. Even if you aren’t in the United States, I hope you have a beautiful day and remember to be thankful for all you have. I have always had so much to be thankful for, but this year my gratitude has reached exponential levels.

I am thankful to all the people I know (and don’t know) who have been with me for the past year. Your support has made all the difference in my recovery. You let me know that I will always have people who care, even when it seems like I am alone. You were there for me and my family when we needed it and for that I am so thankful.

I am thankful for my friends, especially Moriah, Kaitlyn, and Sarah. I know I put you through hell and you could have easily walked away. But you didn’t. You three are a part of my family. You were there for my family when I wasn’t even awake, always providing comfort when everything seemed lost. I am so grateful to have met you. I know that I can always come to you, no matter how much distance separates us. I love you girls so much.

I am thankful for everyone involved in my transplant. I am particularly thankful for the nurses and respiratory therapists in the CVICU, the staff at Nemours, and my transplant team at Florida Hospital. You all gave me a chance when nobody else would. You put time and effort into a girl who had an incredibly slim chance of living. Because of all of you, I am alive today.

I am thankful for my family. It has definitely been quite a year, but we have stayed together throughout the turmoil. We have faced loss and pain, but we have also survived. We argue and bicker and don’t always get along, but you are the greatest support system a girl could have. I love you and I couldn’t ask for a better family.

Finally, I am thankful for my life. I am thankful for my donor and my donor’s family for giving me this gift. I think about you all the time even though I have no idea who you are. I am thankful for your life, because without it, I would not be here today. I am thankful for being able to go to college. I am thankful for my scars and everything I went through. I am thankful for every breath I take with these new lungs. I have lived my whole life worried about the future. I was so careful about everything. I hadn’t realize how much until I no longer had a time limit. Now, I am not afraid to take chances and be bold and make mistakes and get heartbroken because I have so much time. Time that, before December 27th, seemed short and impossible.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a nonfiction piece for my creative writing class. There is a line that says “The only people who count the years and months and days are those who have few of them.” I still believe this is true, but I also think those of us who have been so close to running out of time also keep track. We count the number of days that we proved everyone wrong. We count how many seconds we are awake when we shouldn’t be. We count the number of people we have met who we otherwise wouldn’t know. We think constantly about all the things that we almost missed. Everyday I think about how I almost wasn’t here, right now, in this moment, celebrating Thanksgiving with my family.

I don’t know if there is some big grand plan for me. I don’t really care. All I care about is how my life has affected others. If I make one positive impact on somebody’s life, I have had a successful life. I am so thankful that I have the chance to live the life I always dreamed for myself. I really couldn’t ask for anything better.