Nearly two years ago, at the start of my junior year at USC, my left lung spontaneously collapsed unexpectedly (pneumothorax).  After being admitted to the ER, I spent four days at the Good Samaritan Hospital with an uncomfortable chest tube jutting out of my body.  This was my first, real, and personal encounter of the true fragility of life: the fact that I could possess perfect health one day then instantly have to cling on for dear life the next - without any warning whatsoever.

I recovered quickly, and I did my best to learn the lessons from this challenging but extremely revealing experience.  Lessons like: being grateful for good health, keeping a powerfully positive attitude, and living life fully each day.  So, just five weeks later, with no tubes to hold me back, I made a huge turnaround by seizing my dream of walking-on to the USC football team.  I believe these lessons from hardship played a key role in providing the inspiration and courage to take such a leap. 

Fast-forward two years, and I’m here to write that… again, out-of-the-blue, my left lung collapsed (fourteen days from today, as I write this).  I was admitted to the ER (36 hours after the actual collapse, after finally seeing the doctor for worsening chest/back pains) and hooked up with a chest tube.  Life came to a screeching halt, again.

However, this time I also underwent surgeryto thereby change the odds of future re-occurence from 90% to a comfortably low 10%.  I spent a full week at Queen’s Medical Center under the fine care of capable doctors and kind nurses.  And now, after another full week of rest and recuperation at home, I can gratefully say - I am nearly back to full health!

Lessons Learned and the Road Ahead

But, the main reason why I decided to share this episode of my journey is not to seek sympathy or to discuss medical details.  Rather, what I really wanted to share are the lessons from yet another defining life experience.  So here they are.

Lesson #1: Relearning Lessons - Gratitude, Attitude, and Living Fully

After experiencing the same challenging experience for a second time, I’ve been reminded of the very same lessons learned the first time (see 2nd paragraph).  The recurrence of these lessons furthers my conviction of their validity and strengthens my ability to live them.  The idea of relearning lessons in itself is a lesson: we always have room for growth, for reaching deeper and deeper levels of understanding and wisdom.

Lesson #2: Life = Miracle

Albert Einstein said, “You can move through life seeing nothing as a miracle, or seeing everything as a miracle”.  Forcefully being put face-to-face with the raw fragility of life has naturally shaped my perception of life as a miracle.  The sheer complexity of a functioning human body (trillions upon trillions of coordinated processes) aligned with a perfect set of life-supporting conditions can only be described as: miraculous.  I am also dumbfounded by the abilities of modern healthcare and medicine - that have repaired my broken lung and prevented natural selection from kicking me out of human genealogy.

By choosing to view the world as a miracle, everything becomes illuminated in awesome wonderment and the simplest things (like taking a breath of air) become indescribably sacred.  If you really want to start seeing life as a miracle, I highly recommend watching this video by Kute Blackson called, “The Miracle is You”.

Lesson #3: Suffering and Purpose

I will admit it: suffering sucks.  It’s an easy conclusion to come to after experiencing the unavoidable suffering–physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual–that comes from being hospitalized for a dysfunctional body.  Yet, we all suffer in life.  These facts raise life’s all-important questions: “Why?  Why endure suffering?  And why is there so much of it - personally and throughout humanity?”

I believe life is only livable when we can answer these questions honestly with a sense of purpose.  Purpose gives life meaning and a reason to endure the suffering that comes with it.  If you have a sense of incredible purpose, then even incredible amounts of suffering can be overcome.

Personally, I can confidently say: I believe life is inherently valuable and my purpose in this world is to do my best to live Pure Aloha as the pathway to greater peace, happiness, and freedom for others and myself.  I believe I have been tremendously blessed: with life itself (now, a few times over), personal abilities, and incredible opportunities to realize my purpose.