Persistence Can Pay Off

When you're hanging out at rehab with people who are so sick or injured that they need to be either monitored or assisted with eating it can really help add perspective to life...

When I was sick/mostly paralyzed from botulism my friends at the hospital were people who were like paralyzed with spinal injuries, or they had other serious issues or illnesses and were basically unable to do very much of anything without help... I learned some of the most important lessons about life spending some time with them.

Many people will just never quite understand it until it happens to them. Or they just never will understand it cause it hopefully never happens to them and I wish I could put it into words better, but... For me losing almost everything allowed me to be so much more grateful and happy for what I still had.

That reminds me also of a story I don't think I told, but one day when I was sitting outside rehab with my occupational therapist a guy rode by in a modified bike and my friend the therapist told me some of his story...

He told me that guy was a highly successful college football player who had been accepted into one of the highest paying most well known professional national teams and he was up at a place called Snowbowl not far from from where I live and he was snowboarding and landed wrong and became paralyzed.

He could have given up, or at least settled for a much less demanding life... But, instead he started working on that modified bike first for himself so he could get around and travel better and then he ended up creating a whole business out of it creating modified bikes to help other people in similar situations.

Now he is arguably more successful in certain meaningful ways than many if not most people who are not paralyzed.
I don't know about you, but that inspires me a lot... I see a lot of people give up over a lot less.

This world can be so incredibly hard sometimes... Though, it can also be so incredibly rewarding as well if we don't give up. ❤️

PS... Sorry for my handwriting in the pic, I'm terrible at handwriting and I couldn't use my body very well on top of it because of being significantly paralyzed and weakened.