My Anniversary is TODAY!

In thirty minutes this day will be over (it’s way past my bedtime), but it was so wonderful (and fun) that today deserves a blog post! 

Today, August 23rd, marks the 20 year anniversary of my car accident. Honestly, I didn't even remember until my mom reminded me! It was especially meaningful because I did a charity bike ride for the National Ability Center today (It was only an 18 miler). A few of my friends did the 52 miler and a few did the 102 miler. 

The National Ability Center empowers individuals of all abilities by building self-esteem, confidence and lifetime skills through sport, recreation and educational programs. That’s their mission statement and it’s exactly true! As a TBI Survivor, I've used many of their services: rock climbing, downhill skiing,  and snowboarding. It’s been wonderful and has really given me the confidence to take advantage of all the wonderful, outdoor recreational activities in Utah.

My good friend, Suzanne Daines, did the 18 miler ride with me today, and she came up with a perfect analogy for biking. Suzanne is one of those super insightful people who has a philosophical analogy for everything! She said when she doesn't focus on where she wants to go while riding (aka gets distracted), she veers off in the wrong direction and almost tumbles over.

“It never fails.”

Here's the analogy: Sometimes in life we think we can’t do it and we get distracted. We don’t focus on where we want to go, and, inevitably, we don’t get where we want to go. But, if we stay focused, we “can” get there (PS it's late I just did my best to remember what she said).

I feel like this analogy applies perfectly to my recovery from brain injury - which makes it important that I heard it today! For the first few years after my injury, I felt like I couldn't do it (recover to the point where I felt like I felt like my old self again). I think I just sort of meandered through life, always getting distracted, never completely achieving what I wanted to achieve.

Finally, after about 17ish years, I realized that when I focus on what I could achieve, my successes, rather than my failures, I was pretty much becoming my old self again!

Okay, that last paragraph makes no sense to me, but it's so late that I am falling asleep. My eyes are heavy. I hope someone out there got the gist of what I was trying to say!