This thesis consists of a creatively constructed nonfiction memoir told in eight chapters. It begins with an introductory chapter written in the present tense, in which the narrator struggles with the notions of life and death while wandering the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris, France. She reflects on being among hundreds of thousands who have died knowing that, very recently, she almost died herself. The chapters that follow take the reader on a journey through the narrator's life and what led up to her near death experience. The story culminates with a return to the present, back in the cemetery, where the narrator comes to terms with the notion that her life is a gift. This piece is an examination of the human experience through one young woman's eyes, a look at life and death and the events that give us the will to live. The narrator explores her own diseases and observations about her own body in the context of the human experience--how we cope with disease and attempt to move past artificial ideals set for the human body, coming to a better understanding of ourselves