Hey folks! Today is my 27th birthday!! And all I want for my birthday is to get our Kickstarter project successfully funded. No, really... please don't send me an edible bouquet of any sort.
This has been a crazy year for me. Earlier this year, I spent 3 days in the hospital after finding, one night, that the left side of my body had gone numb and I couldn't walk. It was more confusing, than anything, for both me and the doctors. I was perfectly healthy and far too young to be having a stroke... so what was the deal?
Overall, it was a really strange experience. I spent most of the time sleeping, with the occasional interruption of a doctor who would come in and make me run through a series of strange exercises to make sure I wasn't having another stroke or experiencing any brain trauma. But the worst part was laying there and not knowing if my life was about to completely change... or if I'd even have much longer to live.
I had to reach some level of acceptance, or else I was going to drive myself insane. The conclusion I came to was that there should be no regrets or fears. And I don't mean that in the sense of "do everything so you'll never regret not doing it" but more in the sense of "what's done is done." The one thing I did realize, while waiting to learn of my fate, was that there were some things I wanted to do and that I should do these things as soon as possible, because you never know what might happen today or tomorrow or next year.
After a slew of tests (CT Scans, MRI, and the scariest of all, the Angiogram) my crew of doctors figured out that I had a Vertebral Artery Dissection... fancy words meaning that I had actually torn the inner lining of the two small arteries in the back of my neck. My stroke-like experience happened because blood flow to my brain was cut off for a second, leaving me dissoriented and unable to use the left side of my body. The other interesting piece of information was that the MRI showed that I actually did have a stroke at some point. It was unknown us to whether it happened 3 weeks or 15 years ago, but still pretty scary to hear. The blood clot actually went to a memory center of my brain, so I didn't experience any serious damage but I most likely just felt a little "off" when it happened.
I spent 3 months on medications and under close watch until the arteries were able to heal. The crazy thing is, I'm back to normal. It's almost like it never happened. However, I definitely gained a great deal of wisdom from the experience and, honestly, it still scares me when I think about what could have happened.
So, one of the things that came out of this is that I realized that I really have no career goals other than finding a way to make it on my own. I could spend my time working for someone else, and I might even enjoy and be really good at it, but it would still feel like time wasted for me.
The second thing is that I wanted to finally go on my road trip around the country. I can't even remember how this idea was planted in my head or when I started obsessing about it, but it's been a dream of mine for a long time. I have been looking for a way to make it work for years, and so I'm very excited to say that it's finally going to become a reality with Nice Shirt, America. The best part is that it combines my longing to travel with the practical and fun purpose of promoting my business and meeting new people, to share their stories as well as mine.
Of course, I'd like to avoid racking up major credit card debt, so I'm looking to have this project funded through Kickstarter. Thankfully we have friends across the country, willing to put up with us couch surfing, so we are basically looking for gas money. Times are tough, for sure, but if you have anything to spare... even $1... you can help us make this tour possible.
So, here I am, a little older and a lot wiser, trying to make my dream a reality.
PS - Big thanks to the 8th floor of Providence Portland Medical Center. They were so nice and took really great care of me, and without their financial aid, I would probably be forced to eat top ramen and live in my mom's basement for the rest of my life.
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