Thankful!

Today is technically the first anniversary of a rather unpleasant memory of mine, although it's actually been 4 years.

I used to LOVE leap year, and thought it was a day to go out and celebrate. I mean, after all, it's a gift of a day that we don't get every year. But on Leap day, 2008, I was in no shape to go out. A little back story: About a month earlier I had broken up with an on-again/off-again relationship that had spanned over 14 years. I won't get into any of that, but I will tell you that with the break up, I had also tried cutting off a few mutual friends, who were relentless in trying to keep me around. One in particular, Melissa, was not going to let me slip off into post relationship oblivion without a fight. About a week before leap Day, Melissa hounded me until I picked up the phone and talked me into going out with friends, to a comedy show, on Leap day. A few days before Leap day, I started to get ill. On Leap day I had a full on flu, but I knew I couldn't cancel, because I knew Melissa would probably just drag me out of my bed, thinking I was making excuses. So, in my heavily medicated state, I packed everything I thought I would need for the night and headed out to celebrate this very rare of occasions. 

The details of the night are a little blurry, and the details of the incident are still a little too vivid to go into great detail, but around midnight on February 29, 2008, two men put a gun to my head and robbed me as I was leaving Melissa's house. I won't get into everything that ran through my head, and how things played out. And I can't get into the impact this event had on me, my friends or family, because it is still a little too disturbing to think about. But what I can say is that I was unbelievably lucky! I AM unbelievably lucky! I can't say that it's made me appreciate my life any more than I did before, because I try to appreciate every minute of every day. I can't say that it made me realize how great my friends and family are, because I already knew how wonderful the people in my life are. And I can't say that it's motivated me to make drastic changes in my life because my life is in a constant state of drastic change. I mean, don't get me wrong, that night left a mark. But as the actual anniversary, down to the minute, slowly creeps towards me tonight, all I can think about is how thankful I am. I'm thankful to those two men for not taking more than my belongings. For not hurting or killing me. For leaving me to see another day. I am thankful for keeping a level head in the face of eminent danger. Mostly, I am thankful for the support and love that my friends and family, and even strangers, showed me in a time that I really needed it. And lastly, my spiteful side is thankful that I had nowhere but my purse to put my nasty, flu filled, dirty tissues all night, and that there probably two VERY ill bad guys later that week.

No matter what, life is short. So enjoy it! Good or bad, watch, reflect, learn and grow from all of it. It's all we can do. It's all we SHOULD do! Begin and end each day by being thankful. I don't do that enough, but tonight I am.