The Climb

It was a dark and stormy night!… lol no it wasn’t. Should it have been? I mean it was a sad hard day, but it was beautiful outside. It was sunny and bright. And sad and hard. It was all of those. There were no storms. In fact, over the 5 months, I can’t remember […]

Year 20: I’m Not Afraid Anymore

This year marks my 20th anniversary of having a heart transplant. When I was a lot younger, probably in my teens, I was at a telethon raising funds for the Heart Institute. I liked doing these telethons and telling my story on TV when I had the chance. Every time I told my story the […]

The Coolest Thing About Organ Donation

It took me almost 17 years to believe it was OK for me to be a transplant recipient. I was always fighting it. I was always trying to prove I was other things first; a regular kid, an artist, a dancer, a student, cool (lol), whatever. I would come up with things and then try […]

What makes you, you?

When I was younger, I used to hate at the beginning of a new school year when the teacher would go around the room asking each student to tell the class “a little about yourself”. This was worse torture to me than showing up for an exam that I didn’t know about. (possibly because I […]

My Wish

Here we are it’s December again. None of us knew how this year would end. 2020 was the year we’d all have clear vision. Reaching for our goals and getting what we’d been wishing. We had no idea how it would really go. So many people lost. How many broken? We may never know. We’d […]

October 16th, 2001

October 15th, 2001 was probably the scariest day of my life. It was the day I found out there was a heart for me. After months of searching, they had found a match. At the beginning of June 2001 this whirlwind showed up in my life. It stole my air. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t […]

“What do You want?”

The other day I accidentally locked myself out of my apartment. I had no idea what to do. I was wearing a robe, a tank top, pj pants, and slippers. I had gone to the garbage chute which is right next to my apartment. I heard an odd click as my door closed behind me […]

Amanda’s Journey

by Amanda Saunders I would like to preface this post by thanking Laura for the wonderful opportunity. This is truly a dream come true! So, my health journey is a long and twisty one. But I take pride in the fact that medical professionals call me complex and complicated. I get wide-eyes and gasps of […]

June 14th, 2001

19 years ago. It was the first time I’d ever lost someone. For a moment my situation had been eclipsed by something far worse. I remember the room. I remember the lighting. I remember the colours. I remember the exact moment my mom was hearing that her father had suddenly died only an elevator ride […]

What It’s Like To Be A Quitter

When I was younger, I used to quit things a lot. There was a very good reason for it but it still made me feel like a loser. I used to quit things that were too hard. The first and probably worst thing I ever quit was my swim classes. Before I got sick, my […]