On May 19th of this year, we will mark 10 years of my being cancer free! Whoa. Ten years. Some of you might be wondering, okay, how do you know it was that day? Well, we base that milestone by the date of my bone marrow transplant, which was on May 19th, 2009. That was my doctor’s recommendation for eradicating the blood cancer by first wiping out my existing immune system, and replacing it with new stem cells, provided by a matched donor. In doing so, I was completely reset. A reboot of the body, so to speak. Even my early childhood vaccinations were gone. My immune system was rebuilt from scratch, allowing healthy cells to grow, not cancer cells. And my body has continued to do so ever since, thankfully.
A lot has changed since that time. I don’t think my wife, my family or even myself are the same people we used to be. I think we spent so much time redefining the new normals that came along, that we forgot how to return to what “normal” was ten years ago. I feel as though the person I was then is a completely different individual I knew, like an old acquaintance. In some ways, I’m thankful for it because if anything, it’s helped us to grow. I think it hardened me, but also humbled me, if that makes any sense.
I’ve started writing music again. I feel like I have a lot of content I can put into words that I can marry with melody. I finished writing my first song in over a decade the other day. That felt good. Felt amazing, actually. It’s fascinating to me how we can take a traumatic experience and repackage it into something beautiful, like a song. It suddenly doesn’t seem as scary or monotonous. Maybe one day I’ll share them with you guys.
I do have a few new projects nearing completion that I’ll be sharing soon. One of which, is an incredibly large drawing of the Avengers in a tribute to Stan Lee, as well as a brand new Spider-man drawing I’ve never shown. I’ve also got more Sessions videos in the works. So stay tuned for that.
At the end of the day, no amount of music, cars, camera gear or even guitars can measure up to the support my friends and family have given me over these ten years, and ultimately over the course of my life. I’m forever thankful for all of you. It really does take a village.
Thank you all for watching, following, liking, caring, hugging, kissing, crying or even cheering on my behalf. I love all of you, and wouldn’t have made it here without you.
Together, we get it done.
-Jonman
