Twenty-seven.

In about seven minutes, it will be my birthday.  

June 17th, 2009.  

In the last year, I've lost one of the most important people in my life to a car accident. . . but not before telling her that I've always wanted to be just like her as I stood before her and a small crowd of scholarship donors in a private room of a fancy restaurant as I read my thank you speech for the 21st Century Scholars Society scholarship.  

In the last year, I've developed a deep love for the German language, and a strong desire to continue learning it.

I've watched the ball drop in Time Square on New Year's Eve with two of the best friends I could ever ask for.  I'd do it again in a second, despite standing outside shoulder to shoulder with thousands of strangers, with frozen extremities due to the two degree weather.  

I've watched in awe as two more of my best friends brought the most perfect child into this world.  I've marveled as they instantly became the two most loving and nurturing parents I've ever known.  

In the past year, I've made the incredibly difficult decision to let go of someone I love, and let her make her own mistakes, instead of trying to take the responsibility of trying to shield her from everything.  

I've fallen head over heels in love with Chicago.  

I've suffered from moderately deep depression and insomnia.  

I've felt my heart ripped out of my chest at the news that my uncle was in a terrible motorcycle accident, and utter relief when he began to slowly progress and heal.  

I've learned that a real friend will always be  there when you need him with a shoulder for you to cry on, and just the right words to encourage you to keep moving on, no matter what.  

The past year has held tragedy and sorrow enough to blanket my world in shadow, and joy that can move the tallest mountains of the land. 

I've learned that all of these things are a part of life.  

My twenty-sixth year on earth was the hardest one I've endured so far, but as I enter my twenty-seventh, I'm a little stronger than I was before, and perhaps a little wiser, too.  I'm more self-aware, and I'm better equipped to handle the bumps and potholes that lie ahead.  

So, here's hoping that next year, I'm still holding my head high and learning from every high and every low that comes my way.  

Happy birthday to me.  

 

18 Candles

Some of you may remember that back in January I posted about the tragic events that occurred concerning my 17 year old cousin Nicole.  

I haven't talked a lot about it on this blog simply due to the need for privacy and the concern for her safety, as she was a victim of a crime.  

However, now, nearly six months later, a lot has changed, and I feel a little bit more comfortable talking about it.  Nicole has made such amazing improvements, especially in the last couple of months.  It is incredible how much she and those around her have endured since November 30th, and even more incredible are the odds that Nicole has overcome.  

We had doctors and nurses telling us that she would never be more than a tragedy whose most basic body processes barely function.  They implied that she would never get out of that hospital bed . . . that she would never be able to smile or laugh or put her arms around us for a hug . . . that she would be fed through a tube in her stomach for the rest of her life . . .

. . . yesterday was Nicole's 18th birthday.  When I arrived at the rehab facility, she was in the therapy room with two occupational therapists, sitting up mostly on her own, making a birthday craft.  It was a butterfly, which she had already colored, and was in the process of gluing on sequins to the wings.  One of the therapists asked her to say who I was, but she was a bit tired, and she's only barely begun relearning to use her voice.  So on her dry erase board, she wrote "Corry."

Back in her room, we looked at pictures, watched Looney Toons videos on youtube on my phone, and were just generally silly and full of laughs.  

And Nicole knows that Corry isn't Corry if she doesn't have her camera with her . . . so we had a little bit of fun with that, too!









Happy Birthday Nicole! You are my miracle!