My mom is a strong believer in God, and claims that she and I surviving my birth is proof enough. Her body rejected me at 28 weeks because our blood has different rh factors. She went into eclamptic seizures and I had to be surgically removed. We both almost died. I was an incredibly sickly child. At one point, my mom was as looking into signing me up for Make a Wish, because so many people, my mom included, thought I was just going to die. I was that unhealthy. My left lung has permanent scar tissue from having pneumonia so much when I was younger. You can still see it clearly on x-rays. My lungs weren’t fully developed until I was 19. Doctors were tracking their development to make sure I wouldn’t need any extra care as an adult.

Now I’m an adult who is relatively healthy considering all of the debilitating ailments I have, most likely a direct result of being born early. My mom says it’s a miracle and a blessing from God that I survived and am as successful as I am. I don’t think it’s any of that shit. I think it’s modern medicine and my desire to succeed to spite people who’ve wronged me. God ain’t got shit on antibiotics and spite.