I recount the night a piece of steak cut off my airway and, for a brief stretch, my life. I describe what happened in that in-between moment, a shift in awareness that felt separate from the panic in the room around me, and how it left me with a completely different relationship to time.

In the piece, I trace what changed afterward: the small daily habits I let go of, the relationships I stopped taking for granted, and the sense of urgency I now carry toward the things that actually matter to me.

It’s a piece about survival, but more than that, it’s about what surviving asked me to change.