celebrate we will

i spent my 24th birthday in the icu. and i thought having an anatomy test on my birthday last year was bad! a month earlier, i had planned the most perfect bday. my bday was finally going to be on a saturday, so i was going to host a party at my apt with the purple wall on friday night. i had the perfect dress with the perfect accessories all picked out. for saturday night, i had gotten john legend tix for baldeeps bday and the concert happened to be on my bday. could it sound more perfect? but when my bday came along, instead of being at a fabulous party in my apt with the purple wall, i was in an ugly icu. instead of the perfect dress, i was in some gross hospital gown. instead of my cute accessories, i had other accessories, like a hideous bite block, a trach, a PICC line, a PEG tube, and a catheter( i looked awful) instead of hearing john legend live, we had his cd playing in the background. but one thing was how i had hoped. i had my amazing friends there. i felt so touched that i had so many people in my life who WANTED to be there with me. i had about 40 visitors who came into my room in pairs and i was so shocked everytime the door opened because i didnt know people loved me that much to be brave enough to come see me. it was people from charlotte, people from undergrad, and a ton of people from duke med! i had everything emotionally - an incredible family, an unbelievable boyfriend, and amazing friends, but i had NOTHING physically. this will always be the birthday i spent in the icu,but it will also be be the birthday i realized i already had all that mattered.