I have survived 41 years on this planet.  I didn’t think it was going to be possible. 

Go me!

I was born with a lung defect and had a portion of my left lung removed by age 2.  I then suffered numerous earaches as a child.  

At age 3, my father left me alone in our car and I had climbed over to the driver’s seat and proceed to pretend how to drive.  I engaged the car into reverse and backed straight out of a parking lot across a four lane street into a ditch.  Unscathed.

Before age 4- I ran away from my mother while at an airport.  Terror ran through her veins as I snuck between concrete barriers past the security.  I wonder if kids could get away with that nowadays?

Later that year, I ran away from home with my dog.  We made it about half a block away.  My mother never noticed until she saw me in my pjs in the street.

By age 5 I had tubes inserted into my eardrums to drain fluids that had accumulated causing great distress to me.  Due to all of those lovely ear infections.  Two years later, they did it again.  Hospitals were like a second home now.

Lots of scars, and a dislocated elbow joined me as I went from my childhood into my early teenage years.

Fast forward to age 17.  I got my driver’s license and proceed to get numerous speeding tickets and traffic violations.  At age 19, a car ran a red light hitting and spinning the minivan I was driving 90° and facing the opposite way that I was intending.  I ended up in an ambulance at the hospital with only minor wounds to my head.  As well as a written off vehicle.

Years of hijinks and bad choices lasted me until age 24.  Then I met my wife and my life changed.  Even though my grandfather and my father both died that same year.  I thought the universe was out to get the Havelka Men.

I honestly never thought I’d live past age 35 when I was younger.  But here I am.  Starting another monumental decade of life.