I had “one of those days” yesterday. The kind that starts off not very well, gets progressively worse and ends without much of a glimmer of light anywhere.
Two things occurred to me as I took the long, slow drive home from London. The first was how much many people would kill for a bad day like mine.
Back before my transplant, I was fighting for every breath, living one day to the next in the hope that a) I wouldn’t die and b) today might might be a tiny bit better than the day before.
Yesterday I’d spent the night in a supremely uncomfortable Holiday Inn, hardly slept, woken up with a neck ache, then spent two-and-a-half hours driving about 13 miles into central London, eventually turning up so late for a meeting they’d already finished. And the day went downhill from there.
I realised on my long, slow drive home in the evening that before my transplant I wouldn’t even have been able to spend Wednesday night out at a recording of a TV show, let alone have enough energy left over to do a full day of work.
I’m incredibly blessed to be in the position I’m in, to have the support I have and to have been given the gift of life. I know plenty of people who would kill for a bad day like I had yesterday, versus a bad day that means they end up in hospital genuinely worried about what comes next.
The other thing I realised as a cruised up the M1, mildly faster than a snail at full pelt, was that I had a whole new day starting tomorrow. I hated myself for thinking in such horrendous clichés, but tomorrow would be a fresh start, a new day, a fresh shot at making it as awesome as Wednesday had been.
It’s important to remember these things. We all too easily forget the things we have going for us, and the opportunities we’re presented with every single day.
Don’t forget. Take another shot at awesome.