Scars

In 2012, I got spinal meningitis and fell into a coma. When I woke, I was completely paralyzed except for the my left fingers and toes. On a ventilater, feeding tube and whatever other machine was available to keep me alive. I learned to breathe, swallow, walk and talk all over again. I still have a tracheostomy scar, of which I quite proud.

Six months later, I was injured in a terrorist blast when a bomb went off at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. There's a faint scar on my leg where I was hit by shrapnel.