Who are you?

"In this response I want you to answer the question: Who are you?"

That, my friends was the assignment my ancient history teacher gave us in our first class. It wasn't the first class I had of high school, (unfortunately), because that would have made for the most perfect cliche'd high school moment. However, it was the first class of my second semester of high school, just when I thought I had begun to figure it all out. 

I didn't know how to answer it. I knew my peers would answer by saying things like "My name is So and so, I am x years old, I'm in grade whatever." The bolder ones may have talked about their personal lives: "My parents got divorced when I was x year old....." etc. I remember looking around my class room and noting that everyone was hunched over their binders, scribbling away on their looseleaf. I wondered if they thought that the more they said, the better. That way at least if they didn't know who they were, they gave my teacher enough clues that he could figure it out.

I remember writing something, that I thought was profound. Give me a break, I was 15. But I remember writing: "I don't know who I am, I think that will be for you to decide as I get you get to know me, I could tell you things that I do, titles I hold, even perhaps what I am, but, I do not know who I am. I hope I will soon discover it".

It has been almost 6 years since I wrote that response. I remember what I answered, distinctly, but I do not know what grade I received. I don't think I kept it. 

It has been almost 6 years since I wrote that response and I think I know even less who I am then when I was 15. 

However, I am loving the journey.

A Public Affair

"Do you want us to call you an ambulance?" "No, I'll be fine"

Voila, my triumphant return to the blog. 

I've been getting acquainted with my

I've as someone who isnt constantly in the hospital. However, now that I feel better, I've come down with a pretty bad case of delayed adolescent invincibility. Yup, I think that nothing will affect me and last weekend, I was very abruptly humbled out of this attitude. 

Now about a month into the university term, the germs are out. I'm sure the students that travel from afar are actually just walking incubuses of viral plague, plague that I have no immunity against. This is evident in the fact that I already caught some sort of cold like sickness that feels more like death warmed up. I blame the big city Petrie dish students who dragged in the foreign germs that have destroyed my ignorant bliss 

Late Saturday night I started to feel unwell, only to wake up on Sunday feeling as bough I had been hit by a truck full of blizzards and congestion. Despite my fatigue, I journeyed to the grocery store to fetch my creature comforts oF soup and honey (not together). As I was aimlessly wandering the aisles, overwhelmed by the fast pace of the store I felt progressively unwell, and I wanted to get, out. 

I made my way to the checkout and pulled out my card to pay, and I felt it. It was happening. As soon as I recognized the feeling, I knew I was already past the point of no return. "I'm going to faint" I said matter of factly to the unfortunate cashier I chose to purchase from. "What?" She said, but before she had even had time to compute what was going on, it was over.

I'm not great at fainting subtly, quietly, privately, or gracefully. No. It's always a public affair. Where everyone can see. So there I was, I woke up and I was lying on the grocery store floor, everyone staring. The cashier's supervisor was standing over me and asked "do you want us to call an ambulance?" "No I'll be fine"  (my standardized answer). The last thing I wanted was for paramedics to come, learn my medical history, and drag me to the ER for a long wait and multiple needle pokes. 

After a few minutes I attempted to sit up but was racked with dizziness once again. I rolled my eyes. This was NOT how I pictured my trip to the store going. And then the paramedics came in. Yup. They called them anyway, and they carted me off to the ER. After a short stay of only 3 hours in the ER, an EKG, about 500ml of IV fluid and an extra dose of Cortef, I was on my way.

And behind on my studying.