Shar 🎀

On this day 9 years, I went into a 16 hour brain surgery to remove a benign brain tumor. 9 years since losing all hearing in my right ear and 9 years since my amazing brain and ENT surgeons preserved my facial nerves and saved my quality of life. Since then, I learned to walk again, have annual MRIs, maintained a love for weightlifting, graduated from college, landed a job at my dream company (spoiler- Disney) and hated it, got into running, fell out of love with running, got a dog, fell back in love with running, fallen in and out of love, maintained beautiful friendships, made new lifelong friends, developed a new understanding of sisterhood (my first question after waking up from surgery was “Where’s Tasha?”), and so much more. A special thank you to my mom-who spent every night with me in the hospital, my dad- who spent every day with me in the hospital, everyone who called and visited me, my family and best friends who are patient when I’ve asked “what did you say” for the 10th time in one night, who remember to walk on the left side of me so I can hear them, and everyone who was there for me through the transition of a new norm. My dad promised me that once I could walk a mile again, he’d pay for a trip to Disney for me. He knew what would motivate me.. hehe✨Loving this life and this body for what it can do, and this mind for what it can learn. And a very very special thanks to the hospital therapy dogs and my neighbors cat, Sadie, who visited everyday ❤️