It was one year ago today, on October 16, 2008, that I had the ventricular tachycardia that could have killed me.

I remember thinking multiple times in the weeks after, “I wish it were a year from now”. Well, now it is.

And if you’d told me last year, “Okay, you’re going to almost die, but your pacemaker is going to save you by shocking you about twenty times over the course of three days. You’ll spend weeks in the hospital while doctors puzzle out what exactly is wrong with you. You’ll undergo multiple procedures only to be back in the hospital a day after release. And two months after you seem to be okay, you’ll lose your job.

You’ll spend the next nine months in extremely difficult financial circumstances, doing whatever contract job you can find and mooching off everyone who cares about you. You’ll struggle with anxiety. For a long time the only place you’ll feel safe is in your own bed.

But as time passes, your anxiety will lesson. Regular exercise will make you feel much better, even if it doesn’t result in rapid weight loss. You’ll find even more joy and solace in your programming than you used to.

And a year later, you’ll be one day away from embarking on a huge adventure, travelling across the country to start work at the job of your dreams.”

If you’d told me that, I’d have said, “Uh, is there any way I can just kind of jump to the good part at the end?”

No, seriously, I’m poised to end up with a much better life than I had a year ago. I won’t say that getting put in the hospital and losing my job were good things, but they led me here, and I like where here is. Or where here is going to be when we finally, finally get moved.

But I’m not going to mark this day every year. As the title says, this is an antiversary – a date to forget.