Five days, four letters, three digits, two lives, and one day. As a student, I look forward to the breaks we have. I never thought spring break would become one of the most memorable times of my life. “Stay with me, we can’t lose you,” echoed through my head as my body convulsed relentlessly. A situation that could have been mistaken as fatal became a regular occurrence less than a week later. The doctors told me I have Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, also known as POTS. Four letters were all it took to rock my world. Five days into April I had already met the Grim Reaper. However, my assumption of him was rather dark. I was widely mistaken. The Grim Reaper isn't dressed in black and carries a scythe, he accessorizes with a pulse oximeter and a statistic. He seems insignificant at first until he tries to take your life. Although I didn't see death in April, I caught a taste of it. November 27 I got a clear view of the Grim Reaper. He was decked out in clothing that read the number 208. A number that will never escape my memory. It is a completely different feeling knowing you are on the verge of death versus assuming. How do you explain you survived your heart reaching 208 beats per minute? The answer is you don’t. But clearly, my situation is far from regular. I will speak on my experience and my suffering. I will speak on how in a single day I came face to face with the Grim Reaper and he took my life. He took the life I had before I saw him in all of his sovereignty. 

However, he gave me an unintentional gift, another chance at life. I will use this second chance of life to forever speak about the unknown. I will speak for the eighty-five percent of females who are affected by this disorder so that they will be brought into the light. I will speak so the future generations don’t have to fight for their breath the way others and I have had to fight for oxygen. I will speak so the women who have been given little to no answers and misdiagnoses know that they aren't alone. I refuse to let my experience be ignored. I will speak to bring awareness to the invisible. I will speak for the right to stand without suffering.