Chapter 91, Worth Saving, ROW, saved my life

[USMCGRIZZY19]

Mr Sanderson,

You saved my life with Chapter 91, Worth Saving, in Rhythm Of War.   I truly hope this story reaches you.  My name is Nick, I am 32 years old, and I share more than a few similarities with Teft.  I was a Corporal in the Marine Corps, and received an honorable discharge. A few years after getting out, I somehow managed to get hooked on Heroin, which I assume is equivalent to the fire moss.  I never really did drugs in my life, somehow I ended up going straight to Heroin, that is a different story, for a different time.  What I’m getting into now is how God saved my life through you.

I googled my birthday horoscope one day a few years ago, birthday being July 7th, 1989.  I looked at my lucky numbers from each horoscope, out of the three numbers on each, the number 9 was on both. I adopted 9 to be my lucky number.  A few years ago, I had a conversation with my aunt, who is a nurse practitioner. We were talking about my addiction, and I said the phrase “I think that I am Worth Saving”. She said “Repeat those last two words” Worth Saving. Well I’ve been battling this off and on for 6 years now. January 5th of this year I checked myself into the hospital. I was way past my rock bottom. At that time I hardly prayed. Two or three nights later, I did for the first time in years. I essentially asked God to take my life, so the suffering can end, my family can heal and move on. I asked God why would he save me from certain death twice, when friends I know who have toddlers and more to lose, never got a second chance.  I was hopeless and truly about to give up.

I woke up the next morning after that prayer, within the first two hours after waking, I picked up Rythym Of War where I left off and continued reading. Two chapters into reading, I get to Page 999, Chapter 91, Worth Saving. I don’t believe in coincidences, add up the coincidence of 999, with my conversation with my aunt about worth saving, and add in it’s about Teft, who my real life story parallels, two hours after waking up, when I said that prayer a few hours ago, and that was the day I knew without a doubt God exists, and that my life changed.

I chose today to write you because tomorrow I celebrate 7 months clean and sober, just the amount of time Teft had in that chapter.  I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart Mr. Sanderson.

Lastly, I know my autograph means nothing. I was hoping that I would catch you at a signing one day, and be able to share this story with you. I wanted to tear out that page and put my autograph on it, and give it to you.  While it may be meaningless to you, I wanted you to have it, so that way if there ever comes a time, when you’re getting burnt out, life may becoming stagnant, where you’re asking yourself does any of this matter? Where you could look at that and remember my story, and assure yourself that it matters more than you could ever know. You are doing exactly what you were born to do. Thanks again sir!

Respectfully Sent,
Nick

Edited August 4, 2021 by USMCGRIZZY19
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[BenduLuke he/him]

I am happy for you.

[Sicira]

Amen brother! What a powerful story; I'm super glad you're still here with us!

[Iarwainiel I she/her]

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Edited August 18, 2021 by Iarwainiel I
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[+robardin he/him]

By the Forgotten Gods, what a powerful story.

I'm glad Brandon's work reached you; I'm even more glad that you are being saved. Stay on the course, brother. Strength before weakness!

 

[Aeternum]

Welcome to the Shard! That is a very powerful story, and I'm glad you're here with us. Who's your least favorite character?

[AonEne he/him]

Welcome to the Shard; I'm so glad that happened to you and that you are doing better now! I do have to say that Brandon is never on the forum and I usually don't see most of his team here; they're all pretty busy people. I do hope that they get to see this, whether it's through another miracle of them deciding to look around at the right time or you DMing Brandon on reddit, where he spends more time. But even if they don't, I'm so happy you're here and alive and I know Brandon would care too. 

God loves you and you're doing great so far! 

22 hours ago, Iarwainiel I said:

The Dragonsteel team, including Peter, are often on this forum, so for sure Brandon will get your message. 

I'm curious why you say this, as I've never known them to browse the forums, with most of Dragonsteel not having accounts (that we know about) and Brandon himself saying he doesn't have time to keep up with us (his account hasn't been logged into in years). Occasionally Ben or Isaac will compliment a fan work or Peter will post in the typo threads, but that's about it that we know of. I know Peter and Brandon both posted a little more in the past, but did other employees show up that much more in 2011? 

[USMCGRIZZY19]

Thank you everybody for the support. Honestly, my least favorite character may be Shallan, Kaladin is my favorite in Stormlight, but the lord of scars is probably my favorite character

[Flaming Coinshot he/him]

Welcome! *Secretly puts more tallies on my character popularity board*

[Chaos he/him]

Hi @USMCGRIZZY19! That was a really touching thing to read and I'm glad you shared it. I would recommend you share it directly to Brandon using his Contact form (as Dragonsteel is not on here much, and there are a great many topics here): https://www.brandonsanderson.com/contact/

[Hollow Graves]

Hey, I know the feeling. It was not an addiction but It was hard.

I am only 15 and was having super bad depression this summer. Then I read Brandon Sanderson's Oathbringer book again. When I got to part with Wit and Shallan after she saw boy die. I literally cried. Brandon writes amazing fantasy that is actually life saving.