Note to Self was written as a message to my future self. I wrote it while on my fourth year of dialysis and anticipating my eighth dialysis-related surgery as well as an imminent kidney transplant. Each surgery seemed to leave me with more prominent scars than the last, and the scars from my upcoming surgeries would stand out most of all.
As I considered each individual scar, I thought at first about how each one reflected a new health challenge that had stood in the way of living my life. In time, however, I started to view them as reminders of what I've survived, and even the time sacrificed to dialysis began to seem less like a loss and more like time invested in a future life where I could be more fully present.