Julie Weinberg Muniz

Christmas Eve 1979 at age 17, I suddenly felt weird my head and my arm had a sensation of being totally light. This lasted for a minute or two but that brief moment would mark the beginning of a life-altering journey.

Very soon after, I developed a persistent and overwhelming feeling of déjà vu. It wasn’t the fleeting kind most people experience occasionally-it was constant, lingering. This ultimately lasted for 6 weeks until life saving brain surgery. Along with it came vision problems, as if I were looking at the world through a pair of dark sunglasses, and a few recurring, intense headaches.

I went to the first doctor the day after Christmas who gave me my first misdiagnosis – my nerves.

Over the next several weeks, I went to multiple doctors with various misdiagnoses although none ran any testing.

I kept telling my parents that my “my brain was bleeding “. I’m a teenager with no medical knowledge or training.

Ultimately, my dad took me back to my pediatrician and insisted on a brain scan where an AVM (arteriovenous malformation) was discovered, a tangle of abnormal blood vessels that could rupture at any time. More tests were conducted, a week later, in early February 1980, I had surgery where, during which a complication occurred, it ruptured – but I survived!

I woke up in ICU paralyzed on my right-side and aphasic.

I went through a 18+ month recovery – although recovery is truly lifelong.

I went from right-handed to being a lefty. I have hemiparesis – I just walk slower but has not stopped me from life. The aphasia is still there but is invisible to most – words get trapped. I work around the challenges. It’s my ‘normal’. Although, everyone has their own version of ‘normal’.

With everything – I’m grateful. And through it all, I’ve lived a beautiful life.

I got married. I had children. I raised a family that’s active and full of love. Now I have grandchildren, and they bring me so much joy. I built a career I’m proud of and worked my way up to a VP-level position—something I don’t take for granted for a single second.

That doesn’t mean it’s all been easy. What I went through left a mark. I deal with health-related PTSD – because when something that big and sudden happens to you at such a young age, it stays with you. I’m incredibly thankful for my therapist, who has helped me work through that and continue healing in ways I didn’t even realize I needed.

But if there’s one thing that experience gave me, it’s perspective. At 17, I learned something many people don’t learn until much later: tomorrow is not promised. I’m grateful for each and every birthday. That lesson has stayed with me every single day. It’s shaped how I live, how I love, and how I show up in the world.

Be grateful for every day. And I carry so much gratitude in my heart.

Eternal and profound gratitude to my parents-who fought for me, cared for me, and loved me through the hardest time of my life. For my friends-who showed up and lifted me when I needed it most. And for the medical team-who quite literally saved my life.

When I look back, I don’t just see what I went through – I see everything I’ve been given since.