Today.

I didn't sleep last night and after I got back to my apartment a few hours ago, I wrote a blog post because I had much on my mind. It looked too long and I am  not sure if I was making sense since I am so tired. So, I got on Facebook and quickly typed up something and posted the following as my Facebook status. The blog post that I wrote a few hours ago, however, will probably be posted a few days from now when I have slept more than a total of six hours in the past four days and my head can actually think clear. This is the Facebook status I just posted up, since I know many readers of this blog are not my friends on Facebook:

Today, May 23, 2013, I can officially say that it has been four full years since that fateful tree crushed me under the roof of my family's SUV and turned my life, and the lives of those closest to me, upside-down.

The accident caused me to lose a lot of things, some easily visible and some not. But what I have gained since that time cannot be acquired with ease. There have been times when I have been scared. There have been times when I did not think I could be in any worse pain. There have been times when I have felt completely alone. There have been times when I have felt that everything in my life was crashing down on me and that there was nothing left to salvage.

From the severed nerves and killed brain cells--things that are still humanly impossible to regrow--I have grown. I have gained much insight. I have met many people and have had the surprising privilege of both affecting and being affected by others. I have learned more about myself and the human condition in these past four years than what it seems like others ever do in their lifetime. I could never have acquired the perspective I have in any other way. For everything I have lost, I have gained something new.

And now, four years later, I am thankful.

Four years later, I am here. I am now.