Days later I wake up from a coma in an intensive care unit. I can hear a nurse calling my mother as I slowly take in my surroundings. My mother leans over me, looks into my eyes, and says, “Aren’t you lucky the doctors saved you?” I can’t talk because I’m on life support and a ventilator is helping me breathe. So I gesture for a pen and paper. I make eye contact with her to be sure she’s watching, and write slowly and deliberately, drawing a thick black line under each word for emphasis: I SAVED MYSELF I’m not sure I can name all the ways this experience changed me, but I think at the very
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