Story to tell of Summer 2012: The year I was shot

It was July 23rd 2012. I just turned 18 years old and just finished high school. I was working at a restaurant at the time on the Southside of Pittsburgh. It was a Monday night and I was getting off of work around 11 o'clock at night and my cousin texted me asking if I was interested in going up the park in our neighborhood. Usually I would have said no to him, but it was a beautiful summer night and it wasn't too hot. So I went up there and met my cousin and two of my friends I knew since kindergarten. When I get there I notice two other guys on the bench. Im not from a very good neighborhood and this wasn't anything abnormal, but i usually at least know the people up there, even if they weren't the best people, we still had a mutural respect for each other because we grew up in the same shithole of a neighborhood. These two kids I never seen in my life. So i was slightly alarmed, but i went on the court and started shooting around because I was already there. After about 4 minutes of playing my cousin noticed his phone was not on the bench anymore. After relizing one of them had it he squared up with the one kid to try and fight. Before he could take any swings the other kid pulled out a gun waved it for 2 seconds and pointed it at me and shot. It was a 9mm bullet and went thru my right forearm and into my left abdominal, and ended up clipping my femoral artery and I began bleeding out internally. It took paramedics about 7 minutes to show up, if they were a minute or 2 later i probably wouldn't be here. So for that i am forever grateful for the first responders that were there that night. After 2 surgeries, one to remove the bullet and clamp the artery, and the second to rebuild my colon. Everything went perfect and after 7 days in the hospital I was back home. It took me exactly 8 weeks to recover and get back to work. I am truly blessed to still be here today.