I grew up a relatively healthy kid. I ate my three-square meals daily with a few fruit roll ups and Oreos in the mix. When I was in 7th grade, I decided to abstain from meat for Lent (the 40 days leading up to Easter), a decision that changed the dietary trajectory of my entire life. However, that decision did not in my mind start my ‘wellness journey’. I just despised the taste and texture of meat and Lent afforded me an opportunity to tolerably decline my mother’s cooking. It wasn’t until much later in life that I would discover the environmental and health benefits associated with a plant-based diet.

I was a strong athlete and excelled in school. I loved the world of beauty and spent hours in my room idealizing the new fashion and makeup trends and recreating these looks with Kaboodles filled with “age-appropriate” (i.e. cheap) makeup. I was a fairly, normal teenage girl and living the suburban dream - wellness was not on my radar. That was until age sixteen when a host of unidentified opportunistic infections suddenly wreaked havoc on my body.

After numerous misdiagnoses and trips to the ER, I was ultimately hospitalized in pediatric ICU, completely isolated from other patients, and requiring round-the-clock medical observation. Over the course of the next 55 days, I lost my ability to speak and eat solid foods dropping to a critically low body weight. I watched my fingernails deteriorate, and eventually fall off, and displayed track marks up and down my arms from shots, blood draws and IV sticks rivaling even the most habitual junkie. To say I was sick, was an understatement.

The darkest moment of my life was writing out my ‘will’ with my mother bedside. Tears streaming down my face as I, pen to paper, listed my worldly possessions and assigned inheritors.  Who would get my extensive collection of Hollister Co. polos? My skip-proof Walkman CD player?  What would become of all those Kaboodles filled with makeup? I make light but at the time, I was terrified. I was convinced I was dying.

But, it’s always darkest before the dawn. The dawn indeed emerged as it tends to do and so too did I. Frail, thin, weak and with an immune system mirroring that of an AIDS patient, I was discharged from the hospital. I was told I wasn’t ‘sick’ anymore, but I certainly wasn’t healthy either.

To rebuild my immune system, my mother took me to a Holistic Nutritionist. My first introduction to a world of medicinal grade treatments derived entirely from natural, plant-based sources. I wasn’t completely sold on the idea. Ingesting copious amounts of supplements, peeing into a cup once a month and drinking green juices - it all felt like yet another prescriptive treatment plan - but I was desperate to return to my soccer team, junior-year norms and my old life so I succumbed to the treatment. Over the next year, I watched my nails grow back, my energy levels increase, my weight stabilize and most importantly, I regained hope and a newfound approach to life - one rooted in gratitude.