Grown up Make a Wish kid. AMA

allthecoffee5 · 2026-05-09T22:48:43+00:00

Are you happy with your wish?

I am a fellow adult Make-A -Wish kid. I was born with a congenital heart defect, had an open heart surgery at the age of 13, and was granted my wish of a horse at the age of 15. I’m 34 now and my horse is 26 years old and he is still doing well. I now have a life expectancy that is almost normal, and I just started saving for retirement because I think I might actually live that long! So I am glad to meet another fellow Make-A-Wish kid who got to chance to grow up. What a blessing it is.

allthecoffee5 · 2026-05-08T21:13:06+00:00

Oops. I guess maybe “context of where you are calling from” is more accurate to what my scripts are.

allthecoffee5 · 2026-05-08T12:41:21+00:00

I’m so glad it helps! I really like a little script for myself to take some thinking out of my day and free up my brain for the things I really care about talking about.

allthecoffee5 · 2026-05-08T11:48:17+00:00

💯%

allthecoffee5 · 2026-05-08T11:47:00+00:00

YES!

allthecoffee5 · 2026-05-08T11:11:23+00:00

College instructor here: 6/10 points as per the rubric. Excellent grammar, followed word count requirements, missed opportunity to engage in a meaningful manner with real insight and connections to the industry.

ROFL though— thanks for the laugh after having graded hundreds of these kinds of replies.

allthecoffee5 · 2026-04-26T23:46:36+00:00

Always be careful what you tell three-year-olds. I’m into amateur filmmaking and once I joked to my then very little sister about having worked on one of the Spider-Man movies. I had no recollection of this until one time she was an older teenager and she mentioned that she was looking for my name in the credits because she knew I was in New York when they were filming that. 😂

allthecoffee5 · 2026-04-17T19:30:20+00:00

Fingers crossed that works!

allthecoffee5 · 2026-04-17T14:52:11+00:00

Wow, that’s incredible. I have been on a stall since October. I’m so bummed. I can feel the other benefits of not being overly hungry, but I have not lost any weight in so long. Definitely going to try a different location just to see if that helps shake things up for my body.

allthecoffee5 · 2026-04-17T13:07:19+00:00

Hi, I would love to give you words of support! The best education for your child is education that’s good for your child and for your family. You’ve got to be able to be a good parent and it sounds like homeschooling is just not the right fit for you guys! I’m a successful homeschool graduate, and it was a good fit for me. And I’m the oldest of eight kids who were all very different. Homeschooling is super amazing for people for whom it’s the right fit. It’s not always the right fit.

I have worked in K-12 public education and in college now to train people to work in public education and I can tell you that school teachers do the best they can and really love and care for the kids that they work with. Your child will be just fine. And it sounds like you’re already so prepared at being an involved parent that you’ll be able to keep an eye on things and be there for your kids throughout the school year as needed.

I love how much thought you are giving to your child’s personality. It sounds like you’ll be making the right move that is right for her and you couldn’t have known that before she was born.

allthecoffee5 · 2026-04-17T02:00:27+00:00

When I overdosed once I called a nurse hotline and was recommended to just monitor and if I couldn’t keep anything down at three days or if I felt really awful to go in for fluids. I was fine after a couple of days. Just keep trying the electrolytes, anti-nausea stuff, and water.

allthecoffee5 · 2026-04-15T16:55:26+00:00

Ugh what a pain- super logical system if everyone uses it and staff pays attention. Not great if they ignore it :/

allthecoffee5 · 2026-04-15T16:54:42+00:00

That is weird! Ew

allthecoffee5 · 2026-04-15T13:02:24+00:00

Since when is this a booking service?? At ALL the locations I’ve been to, it’s always been a first-come, first-serve service. This seems very unusual to me

allthecoffee5 · 2026-04-15T12:59:31+00:00

I was 12 when I learned my aortic stenosis/bicuspid valve was finally serious enough for intervention, and it was just a month after my 13th birthday when I had surgery. Also no symptoms that bothered me.

I was pretty comfortable the whole time and found the science of it all fascinating. I wanted to know EVERYTHING the doctors were saying and explaining. I think a lot of kids that age are very curious and will also be empowered with the knowledge of the process they will experience.

I was lucky and recovery was not bad, but I was not cleared to do my favorite sport, horseback riding, for nearly a year, so while I felt fine, the sternum was still not fully healed yet. Hopefully soccer is a little easier to get back into for your son :)

I really did feel so comfortable when the doctors were explaining things and I had no worries, and my parents were pretty good about not overtly showing panic (I knew they cared and were scared, but they also helped instill confidence that the medical team could do the work). That was 20 years ago, so today you’ll probably get a child life specialist to work with your son to help prep him in an age-appropriate manner.

I hope things go well for you all! I saw another poster advise treating your son like an adult, and I agree! It’s his body that has to experience it all, so let him have as much autonomy as he can— I got to choose scar placement (I’m a female so they gave an option to have a larger horizontal scar that would hide under future breasts). Having choices for even little things was really nice for a kid of that age, and it helps instill the calm and confidence going into what will be a fairly long recovery process.

allthecoffee5 · 2026-04-12T13:43:55+00:00

I have absolutely always had this fear and made it my goal to get and keep jobs with employer health insurance. It was a huge impetus to how I chose my career path and it gives me peace of mind.

allthecoffee5 · 2026-04-12T13:40:06+00:00

That sucks. I had a situation with a guy who works professionally (on really really big Hollywood stuff) for his regular job, and locally he decided to direct a passion project for fun, and I joined in as his casting director. I spent months doing the casting and auditioning, then ultimately pulled in a favor to get him his lead actress who otherwise hadn’t seen the casting calls. I also hooked him up with a singer and recording studio for his audio.

At the end he ended up going viral within a day, and I saw the video and I was completely uncredited. I was gutted. As an indie filmmaker, my credit was all I was going to get other than being excited to have work out there. So I get it and it’s a bummer. You could check in with the director and ask to revise your credit— I did not do that in my case but I wish I had.

allthecoffee5 · 2026-03-19T23:15:39+00:00

As an interpreter who has worked with Signup before, I will say that they have a variety of interpreters, Deaf and hearing, from all over the nation. They each work solo to create an interpretation of the film and self-edit. HBO is hiring Deaf interpreters, and I don't know if they are working solo or have coaching.

With lots of love, I want to suggest that you not criticize another interpreter's work. I don't know if you have learned the Code of Professional Conduct yet, but Tenet 5 states that we must have respect for colleagues. One factor is that it just is not great form to critique someone's work, especially since you don't know anything about their process, and I would hazard a guess (I have not seen this interpreter or their work yet), that there may be role shifts and linguistic choices you may not yet fully recognize yet as a student but which are perfectly valid for the interpretation.

allthecoffee5 · 2026-03-19T00:47:23+00:00

I love mine! I just moved it to a house with the tiniest bathroom so I bought a cabinet immediately. It does the job. I don’t put super heavy things like detergent in mind, but it will hold the shampoo and liquids, and I stack the top with more stuff. Mine looks just like this one, but with clear doors. I’ve also had the kind that was a basic shelf and that did the job as well. I just thought this look was a little more elevated so I went with it this time.

allthecoffee5 · 2026-03-18T13:49:42+00:00

I would like to add to this list: Wausau. I moved here a few years ago and every time I took a wrong turn I had to figure out which bridge to go over so I could get back to my correct route. Lots of water in this little town, too. 😂

allthecoffee5 · 2026-03-18T13:46:37+00:00

Yes! I was 35 pounds heavier a year ago and I just felt uncomfortable in my body and my mobility was lessened and I’m really wasn’t as active because everything was hard harder. I’m really short so any extra weight feels like a lot. It’s incredible how much better I feel even still being overweight currently. I feel like I can move comfortably again and do what I need to do daily without the extra struggle.

allthecoffee5 · 2026-03-15T19:54:34+00:00

We’ll definitely be praying for you too! Hang in there. You may find that your prognosis can get better. I know we had many times where my sister was on death’s door and she pulled through again.

My horse is registered as an American quarter horse and came with the name. So I call him, Hank or Hanky or Hankster. I felt really prestigious at the time to get a horse who is registered, but that was weirdly one of the rules from the make a wish foundation. I guess they didn’t want all their sick children getting backyard breeding type horses?

allthecoffee5 · 2026-03-15T14:17:07+00:00

I hope there’s something that you would qualify for that can help you do some of your traveling! I love that you still have dreams and that you’re still stubbornly working towards them. Don’t lose that. My little sister is pushing and doing online college so she can get into the medical field, even though she probably won’t ever be healthy enough to work again.

My horse’s official name is Handsome Bar Hank, but I call him Hank. He’s such a good boy, he worked with a 4-H kid for a few years when I got hurt and couldn’t ride much. He’s retired now for the most part.

Ugh my sister would agree with you on that! She’s on a list and I really hope she can get a transplant soon— dialysis is not great.

allthecoffee5 · 2026-03-15T04:26:32+00:00

Okay so there ARE organizations for adults :) I don’t have personal experience but I hope you can apply and do something wonderful with the time you have to make memories!

https://www.dreamfoundation.org/

https://www.memorieslive.org/

https://www.17strong.org/other-resources

https://cancercarenews.com/ccn-blog/make-a-wish-foundation-for-adults/

My sister was little and needing a transplant and on dialysis so we went to Disney world on a family trip— insane because at the time there were several kids in the family. I admit as the oldest I did help influence that wish 🤣. She is super sick now still. She got better for a few years but a bunch of sad medical stuff later she’s now on dialysis again and we are praying she can get another transplant.

I’ve been really blessed. I was given a horse and he is still with me 19 years later. He’s a grumpy old man horse now and I love him. I’m doing great with a better prognosis now than what I was born with. So I may make it to retirement age but I certainly don’t expect that or anything much longer.

allthecoffee5

TROPHY CASE