Not Yet an Adult, but Just as Experienced

I was saved
the day after my
seventeenth birthday.
Not by a knight
in shining armour,
nor by a good samaritan.
I was saved
by my own damn
persistence.
I quit smoking that day,
quit drinking,
and quit leaving scars
on my own skin.
I quit starving myself
to the point of passing out
during Calculus,
and quit stockpiling pills
for the day I knew was coming,
the day I'd quit everything else.
So I threw out my cigarettes,
my bottles, my blades.
Destroyed my scale and
buried my prescription bottle.
That night I laid in bed
and thanked God for the day
you'd come into my life
and convinced me that
I had a choice.