You Might Live Longer Than You Think

I can’t express to you enough the value in believing you will live a long life. Regardless of how hard your trials become, don’t allow yourself to give up. I’ll share something personal with you to show why I feel so strongly about this.

Growing up as a child and teen, because I was hospitalized over a hundred times before age eighteen, I never truly believed I would live to be twenty. In fact, I was sure I wouldn’t. I was even more certain I would not live to be thirty years old. Though I felt this way, I did what I could to manage my illness and to care for my body the best I knew how. I never felt, “I’m going to die young, so I might as well drink this keg of vodka—it looks like water.”

Now I am thirty-nine years old and have lived far longer than I ever imagined. I’ve taken many lickings, but I’m still ticking. I’ve lived to see nieces and nephews I held in my arms as newborns grow to adulthood, marry and have children of their own. I’ve lived to enjoy events in life, have experiences and cherished relationships I never believed I would have. I’ve come to have a peace in life that is simply . . . beautiful.

The day I turned thirty years old was one of wonderful celebration. As has been each day and year since then. Every year I grow older, the more astonished I am to still be here and the more grateful I am as well. Though I endure more Sickle Cell pain than I did when in my twenties, the number of hospital visits in my adulthood have been relatively few when compared to my childhood. In the past sixteen years I’ve been blessed with less than ten hospitalizations. For the first time in my life, I have stayed out of the hospital for six years strait. As stable as my health has been, the possibility of living another thirty or more years is both realistic and exciting—most of the time.

I share this with you to encourage you to likewise believe you will live a full life. Work to make it can happen. Hope for it to happen. Live your life in such a way so it can happen. As you do, you may also find yourself living longer than you imagined and enjoying events in life you never dreamed you’d experience.