Why I'm Most Like Pinkie Pie

First of all I'd like to thank y'all for a warm welcome to Everypony.com Really great place. I look forward to lots of fun here.

In a discussion thread yesterday I said that it was a hard decision but I had to say Pinkie Pie is my favorite. In doing so I said that we share some of the same personality traits. I am very outgoing and love to make people smile. The other thing we share in common is our love for celebrations - especially Birthdays.

Yeah I am one of those "Birthday people." No I'm not a materialistic Birthday person and I won't ever get like Spike did in "Secret of My Excess" - though I suppose if all you've gotten on your Birthday is a book each year and suddenly got a bunch of gifts you would go nuts too. :ahh:

Spending quality time with friends is more important to me on my Birthday than gifts.

Anyway, I know some folks like to avoid their Birthday like the plague. I guess I can understand that somewhat. Here's why to me Birthdays are a big deal.

I was born on September 19th, 1982 at a hospital near Atlanta, Georgia. I was born legally blind, with a bilateral cleft lip & palate, no physical nose on my face (just holes where the nostrils normally go), and multiple birth defects (I like to call them blessings).

I was tested for every disease known to mankind back then. Despite every one of those tests coming out negative, my doctors told my parents I would not live past six weeks. If I did live past that point they said I'd be a "Vegetable." Some vegetable I turned out to be!

After a month in the hospital I was discharged to go home to my family for the first time. However it wasn't very long until I was rushed back there. Almost two months after I was born I developed pneumonia. With as many challenges as I faced this was not good at all. Unfortunately things got worse.

Once I was rushed to the hospital, my heart failed, and my skin started turning blue due to lack of oxygen. I was rushed to ICU. Just after Thanksgiving, I underwent emergency surgery that saved my life. It was the first of 18+ surgeries I have had in my lifetime (during several of them my nose was constructed from bone graphs).

Every day to me is a new gift. It's like Christmas morning everyday. but if I ever need a reminder all I have to do is turn my right wrist. There is a scar there where an emergency IV was stuck because they could not find a vein. The scar is a living, breathing reminder of how much I am blessed and how precious life is.

So each year my Birthday is a big deal. It signifies that I have beaten the very long odds set for me when I was born another full year.

I wish more people would not take their Birthdays for granted...or treat them like a skin disease to be avoided at all costs. Birthdays are blessings and life is a gift. You never are guaranteed another one. It's a day worth celebrating! That's why I connect so well with Pinkie Pie.

"...And that's how Equestria was made!" ROFL