It was some time in the afternoon. I gazed outside my kitchen window, lulled into daydreams by the blankets of white snow, tucked into every corner, and draped over every tree branch. The trees black and barren, they looked lifeless, stunted in their attempt to reach the sky. The future held spring though, and there was something under the brown bark, deep inside their core that calmly waited, made stronger by the harsh winter.
The noise barely reached me, but I picked up the phone, “Hello?” I snapped out of my trance, the reflection of snow in my eyes began to melt down my cheeks. My best friend was sick. Brianna had been diagnosed with a rare Mitochondrial disease at birth. Her doctors thought she wouldn’t live to be a year old. Others with the same disease have wheelchairs for legs and machines for lungs, but not her. Just turning 18 and looking completely normal, she struggles daily with a frustrating and inhibiting disease.
Inside every cell in the human body, Mitochondria create more 90% of the energy the body uses to grow and support life. Coming in many forms, Mitochondrial disease occurs when the mitochondria fail to supply enough energy to sustain the function of cells and organs. The disease is genetic, passed down maternally. The disease is virtually invisible, but extremely unpredictable. It’s most severe effects such as organ failure can strike almost instantly and without warning.
Challenges are the stepping-stones towards greatness, and Brianna never seems to have her feet on just one. Constantly threatened with death, imprisoned inside an unreliable vessel, she keeps on across the great river of life, each step aimed towards her dreams. Lying on a hospital bed shaking uncontrollably, wrapped up in white sheets that looked only as if they would strangle her, fever rising to 103 degrees, but still fearless.
One minute shopping with friends, the next in rigors with septsis, her disease becomes real in a matter of seconds. She dances past broken ribs though, sings through chest tubes, and laughs literally in the face of death. She still puts shows together, awes a crowd with her beautiful voice, and opens her heart to the world.
Life is filled with unpredictability, happiness, and sadness, which always threaten to hinder our abilities to be the best we can be. I find strength in Brianna’s amazing perseverance through incomprehensible hardships. Her resilience and courage inspires me to stay motivated and determined. She has taught me to find the beauty in ugly situations, to hold on to rays of sunshine in a storm, gather up and celebrate all of the laughter and color in the life around me. It’s a short thing and finding the perspective that brings out it’s magnificence is something I have found with the help of a wonderful person. I will carry the experiences she has gifted me with for the rest of my life, drawing from them hope, strength, and inspiration to live my life to the fullest and to find the inner power to persevere.
It’s easy to live in fear, the unknown as abundant as the air we breath, or the blood in our veins. When dreams and passions are hidden behind hospital walls or ER curtains, it takes more than an IV and a pacemaker to get through. Arms, veins, branches; we reach towards the sky where our dreams shine bright as the sun. There is something inside each of us, something quiet and waiting that is made stronger by the most severe winters and the earliest frosts. Something, that through the bleak always emerges and colors the bounties of a beautiful summer.
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