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Twists, Turns, and Surprises: Reflections of a 4/24/84 Baby on Life’s Weird Idea of “Special”
I was a 4/24/84 baby. I’m not superstitious, but I do experience an enormous amount of synchronicity. Because I was born on these numbers, I tend to think of them as nice, friendly numbers. Growing up, I liked when I happened to look at the clock at 4:24 and I figured my 24th year would be pretty special.
As it turns out, life has a different idea of special than me. A few days after I turned 24 I graduated from college. Nine months after that, I was diagnosed with cancer. My chosen education in Philosophy/Religion suddenly turned into very vivid life lessons as I grappled with my mortality over a year of treatments and recovery.
I was told I was in remission 4 days before I turned 25, after only 4 chemo treatments. I would go through 8 more and then go on to get radiation, because that is what was done back in 2009.
I got a special opportunity. A brand new facility and a study had been created that seemed like it was meant for me. They published the protocol on my birthday. The head of the program had started working with Lymphoma patients the year I was born. The co-director of the study was the son of a prestigious Lymphoma doctor, very kind, and rather handsome.
