19 is Not the age of Reason
I was 19 when bacterial meningitis hit.
One minute I was living my best life.
The next, I was in a hospital bed not expected to make it.
I survived… in a coma.
Then I woke up and realized survival was the easy part.
Because the real work started after:
learning to walk again, talk again, and accept that parts of my body and my eyesight wasn’t coming back the way I thought it would.
I didn’t “bounce back.”
I rebuilt.
And that rebuild became a life I couldn’t have predicted.
That’s what the book, Destiny Is Debatable, is really about.
Learn more at: https://destinyisdebatable.com/
Host, Author & Storyteller
John B. Grimes is an author, podcast host, storyteller, and meningitis survivor whose work explores what happens after life refuses to follow the plan.
At nineteen, John survived bacterial meningitis after spending eight days in a coma. He woke to profound vision loss, neurological complications, and a future that looked nothing like the one he had imagined. Rebuilding that life—often imperfectly, occasionally absurdly, and one decision at a time—became the story behind his memoir, Destiny Is Debatable: A Memoir of Meningitis, Losing Sight, and the Love I Didn't See Coming.
John is also the host of the Destiny Is Debatable podcast, where conversations about resilience, disability, purpose, family, creativity, and the unexpected turns of life challenge the idea that our circumstances get the final say.
His experience with meningitis eventually led him deeper into advocacy. John is a co-founder and Executive Director of Shots 4 Meningitis, a national nonprofit raising awareness, sharing survivor and family stories, supporting those affected by meningitis, and creating opportunities for communities to take action.
Across his writing, podcasting, advocacy, and speaking, one idea continues to shape John's work: survival is not the end of the journey—it is just the beginning.
Destiny may be debatable. What we do next isn't.
It's Time
