I Turned My Pain Into Power

When I first got hurt, I didn’t think that my story was interesting or really even dramatic. It wasn’t until more people asked and I shared more that I realized my story was a little dramatic. I guess that makes sense. Not walking for a year is definitely not something that happens to every person.

In hindsight, it’s not even the injury itself that makes the situation dramatic. For most people, it’s seeing how I walk, workout, live my life in general and then finding out this traumatic event happened to me that’s dramatic. Because they can’t tell by looking at me that anything significant has happened to my body, that I had this life altering thing happen, or that I overcame such a major, well…THING.

Unbeknownst to them, that was my goal. I was YOUNG when I got hurt, and I knew that the life ahead of me would be (hopefully) long and fantastic. But I also knew that I didn’t want to be treated any differently than anyone else around me. I didn’t want the stares I received when I was in a wheelchair with metal sticking out of my foot, I didn’t want the special treatment I received when I couldn’t walk, I just wanted to be like everyone else.

So I took all the pain I experienced both physically and emotionally, and I reverse engineered it to make me stronger. I knew that pain could derail me, bring me down, it could ruin my whole life, or it could become my source of power. It could show me how strong and capable I am, how resilient I am, and how I have an amazing support system around me that builds me up when I can’t hold myself up.

I tell my classes every time the work gets hard to remind themselves that they’ve made it through 100% of their bad days, so they can do whatever it is that I’m asking them to do. I tell them that because I tell myself that when the work gets hard. If I can get through that pain and anguish, I can do just about anything and be grateful for the opportunity to be ABLE to do it.