I am a Make-A-Wish kid. I grew up terminally ill with very stressed out parents. Blizzard once donated some swag to one of our holiday parties, which is what made me learn about Warcraft III. I lost my copy of it when I left the hospital. I was one of the lucky kids that survived and lived.
I started playing World of Warcraft because of this. Blizzard kindly mailed me CDs, because my computer was a piece of not-nice and didn’t read the DVDs they included in the boxes. Blizzard sent it to me in a partition CD at no cost.
I’ve been with WoW now accoridng to the Timewalking website over 19 years and 5 months. What a journey.
I was that sick kid. I was that kid who played games to escape pain. imagine having severe chest pain every day of your life growing up, and still having to go to school? Trying to have a life? All of your friends are from the hospital too? All of your friends dying one by one. That was my childhood.
I lived. They didn’t.
I’m still here. I was the lucky one that got resuscitated. I survived long enough for technology to catch up enough to deal with my unique auto-immune issues. I was lucky enough to survive until being an adult, where a world-class hospital in Los Angeles gave me a new heart. I’ve had this new heart for six years now. For six years I have been without chest pain, after, 30 years with chest pain.
I spent 30 years in crippling pain, with a failing heart, that had to be repaired every few years.
I am a survivor.
I was that kid who was supposed to die. Now I have a freaken PhD. I lived.
Make-A-Wish helped me have hope as a kid. I got my wish. I’m glad Ezra got his wish.
Thank you Blizzard for still caring about us Make-A-Wish kids after all these years.