Sunday, March 25, 2012

14 Years and Counting

Things I've done in the last 14 years:

Fallen in love
Written many books
Sold 2 books
Achieved my life long dream
Become an EMT
Gone to school for firefighting
Jumped from an airplane
Fallen in love again
Visited Rome, Venice, London, Amsterdam, and Paris
Seen the Mona Lisa
Become better friends with my brother
Read a dozen life-changing books
Read a couple hundred great books
Read some not-so-great books
Adopted a blind dog
Had to put down my blind dog
Fell in love for the last time
Adopted a fat dog and a deaf dog
Drove all over the eastern United States
Met some amazing freaking people
Attended plays in NYC
Did a book reading in NYC
Got letters from people who read my book
Sold my first book to a German publisher
Got high in a hurricane and sang songs with friends
Met my best friend's two wonderful children
Heard Neil Gaiman read while Amanda Palmer sang
Gone to Boulder, Boston, Providence, NYC, Seattle, Baltimore, Atlanta, Knoxville, San Diego, Chicago...and more places that I'm forgetting.
Watched the sun set over the ocean
Discovered what I was born to do and got someone to pay me to do it
Watched enough TV to rot my brain.
Saw the economy collapse
Witnessed the future become reality
Woke up next to the guy I hope to spend my life with
Dreamed a lot of dreams.

This month 14 years ago, I tried to kill myself.  This is just a small list of the things I would have missed if doctors hadn't saved my life.  The best part is that I can't wait to see what the next 14 years brings.

Life is full of suck.  Shitty people, shitty times, shitty relationships.  But it's full of the most amazing kinds of things too.  I'm glad I didn't miss out on them, and I'd hate to see anyone else miss out on them either.  Life is way too cool for that.



*Note:  I screwed up my Author spotlight month somewhere along the way.  An instance of me biting off more than I can chew.  I'll keep posting bookish stuff and when I get the interviews completed, I'll post them too.  

2 comments:

  1. Oh fuck, Shaun. I was about to say something funny until you got to the end. I'm so sorry for the pain you suffered, but I'm also so glad you managed to survive, find love, and write some great books (sure, I've only read the one so far, but it was good enough that I know the rest will be too).

    It was over 20 years ago for me, but I also went through some extremely dark times where I often contemplated taking my own life, even though I never gave it a serious try.

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  2. So glad you're still here, Shaun, and that you've done so much, had so much, along the way. Hugs for the kid who almost missed it all, and for the friend who didn't. :)

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