Twenty-one. Here we are, three hundred and sixty five days later, on the eve of twenty-two. It has been one crazy year.

June

• Working my way through anatomy for the 3rd time, so blogging is scarce.
• A simple blood test tells me my thyroid is a bit messed up, and that I’m anemic [the thyroid, it seems, fixed itself.]

July

• I fail anatomy for the first time.
• I write about good things.

August

• I visit Quebec City with the Asthma Society of Canada.
• Under-training: I am a master at it.
• And, it kicks my ass.

September

• D-Run! Slow and steady . . .
• I hit seven years since Jesus saved my life . . . and I couldn’t be farther away.
• My friend help me recognize Invisible Illness Week with some guest posts.
• I go to California for the Medicine-X conference at Stanford University
• And meet my Cali bestie Steve!
• And I get really sick, but have amazing friends to help me through.

October

• I take a look at trying to be as healthy as I was at twenty. I’m still trying.

November

• Being so far from my faith continues to gnaw at me, but not enough to act.
• Steve visits Canada!

December

• I write about what breathing’s teaching me . . . and living on autopilot . . . which ironically haunts me later.
• Make Yourself: the theme for 2013 is about creating resolution. If only I realized how much I’d need to create.

January

• I work my ass off, and simultaneously become a straight-F student in the Fall 2012 term.
• And, a process months in the making unfolds, and right after crashing down from the Fs, I begin the psychoeducational assessment process.

February

• We switch up my asthma care plan a little bit, with the ultimate goal of attempting to decrease my meds.

March

• All of the stuff surrounding body image slams back into me.
• The educational assessment journey culminates: attention deficit-ish (but not ADHD), and learning/memory quirks (but nothing that can be explained in one word!)

April

• I start working with the university on my academic accommodations . . . and find hope that one day I’ll graduate.
• The end of April also marks my fifth asthma-versary, but I was too sick to celebrate.

May

• I get really sick (thanks anemia) and play the blame-game . . . on myself.
• Then over a week later, I am finally told to go to the ER, where I require a blood transfusion.
• I missed World Asthma Day in the hospital, so I commemorate it a week late.
• Summating 2013 in lyrics . . . “It’s like I wrote every note with my own fingers.”

There’s a Something Corporate song called 21 and Invincible. And really, I think I nailed that this year (. . . partly because I am still alive).

Some days go by, I wish I were famous / Or maybe religious, so I could go to heaven just like you […]

Woah, we’re twenty-one and invincible / can’t wait to screw this up / And I’m in power for the hour / I guess today’s gonna blow us away.