Member-only story

You Can’t Always Get What You Want*

Dana Bennett
2 min readNov 27, 2019

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Photo by Chaz McGregor on Unsplash

You really can’t always get what you want. That’s my life’s theme song.

But you can get what you need. Not sure about that — no wait. I have gotten what I needed.

What I wanted first was something long-term with a man. But instead, I got Hawaii in all its tropical, green, and exotic beauty for a decade, and I got a degree in music there. I love music. I was always married first to music and my piano, since I first had memories.

Then I didn’t have that anymore either, not even a piano to touch first thing every morning.

But I got Denver and Colorado and the grandeur of mountains, unending beauty, snow, and healing. What I needed more than anything, healing. Eventually writing (got me). Then even deeper healing.

I wanted a career. I got a good-paying job, respected editor, working on a fun team. Then eventually, through some other hard losses, I found a career in teaching — teaching and tutoring writing, yes. I loved that so much. I pursued It with a master’s degree to make it real and full.

Then, I got liver disease. Hot damn. I had no idea where that road would lead me, and I knew I didn’t need any disease. But I knew I wanted to get me a new liver. But I got more. A lot more.

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Dana Bennett
Dana Bennett

Written by Dana Bennett

has survived, achieved many things. Storyteller. BAMus, Univ. of Hawaii. MHumanities, Univ. of Colorado Denver. Liver Transplant, Cleveland Clinic.

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