The true meaning of life!
Have you ever wondered about the physical existence of your life that you seem to take for granted? It seems that we really never take the time to appreciate what we have until it is to late. We think of life as a fantasy where our dreams tend to rule our lives. Sure it is nice to have dreams in order to achieve your life goals. However the true realities of life are they can change at a moment's notice and suddenly you are left with a different way of life. When we see someone different we think that it can never happen to me, so we either look the other way or laugh at his or her misfortune. Here is a true story of a person who his saw his life turn into a nightmare and that person was me!
I grew up believing, like most people, that life was full of dreams and what you had was what you kept in life. Sure I heard about accidents and misfortunes of other, but I never really gave much thought as to how fast life could change. Besides I was a healthy, smart, adorable, cool and ambitious teenager who had control of his dreams in life, so how could anything happen to me. When I turned seventeen I had all of my dreams in life set forth and was prepared to make them become a reality. A month later my world turned into a nightmare that left me with all of my dreams gone.
The 23 of April started out like any other normal day in my life. I was working on my car. My father and brothers were working on my sister's new trailer. I just removed the radiator when one of my brothers asked me if I would come down and help them put up the telephone pole. Since it was only about 400 feet away I went down to help. We were joking as we dragged the thirty-foot telephone pole over to the hole that they had dug for it. We started to put the pole up and we had it two-thirds the way up. That was the last thing I remembered. Thirty-three days latter I woke up from a coma and three months later I found out what had happened to me.
My mother told me she was making bread when my brother came running into the house and told her to call the ambulance because I just got hurt. She said she asked how bad it was and my brother said its bad, because the pole had fallen on top of me striking me in the head. She called the ambulance and brought a blanket down to where I was. I was bleeding from my mouth, ears and eyes. My brother in law was holding me with his fingers in my mouth so I wouldn't choke on my own blood. Soon the police arrived first and a few minutes latter the ambulance arrived. I was taken to the local hospital and then transferred to a larger hospital. There the doctors told my parents that there was very little hope for me. The days past by I became worst due to my high fever and losing so much blood. My family, school and friends took up a blood drive to help me. As more days went by the doctors told my parents even if I was lucky enough to survive I would be nothing more then a vegetable. My mother said she remembers being at the snack bar in the hospital when she heard those dreadful words "code blue in the intensive care", which meant that someone is having problems, she knew it was me. When she got to the intensive care unit the doctors told her my fever was still rising and the bed of ice I was on was not helping. They told her not to expect me to live the night out.
I don't remember very much about the first three months in the hospital, but there are a few things I will never forget. One was the experience I had before I woke up. It was not a dream! I was in this tiny dark place and lying on my back. I opened my eyes and saw this face way above me shaking its head from side to side. This face seemed to radiate peacefulness and it had a glow like a halo above its head. I felt my body being lifted up toward this face. As I was being lifted up I felt this hand touch me and felt the pressure and warmth of this hand pushing me back down to my bed. That must have been right before I woke up because the next thing I remembered was looking around and seeing a room of glass and tiny colorful lights blinking on and off. That was about all I remember until the day I was transferred to the rehabilitation center.
That was a scary experience because all I remember was being outside on a bed and seeing these doors opening up, then being shoved inside. It was strange place and I still don't remember being taken out. My next memory was seeing all of these people with no legs, no arms, and people lying in bed motionless. It was there I start to remember who I was and what I used to do in life. I will never forget the first time I tried to eat I couldn't even feed myself or lift my hand up to my mouth. I couldn't talk, walk or hear a sound. I thought back to what I use to do and then saying to myself this must be only a dream, but it was no dream for now I was experiencing the true realities of life. At the rehabilitation I will never forget what I heard this one old guy say to a nurse. How I heard him say it is beyond me, but I think it was God helping me to help myself understand. This guy was without legs and in a wheel chair. I was sitting beside him and I was tied in the wheel chair because I could not hold myself up. He looked up at the nurse and said, "You just wait until I get my artificial legs put on, because I'm going to chase you all over the hospital". I thought it was kind of funny what he said. Then I looked at myself and thought I have arms and legs and if he has the courage to do it then so can I. So I tried harder and after months of rehabilitation I started to move my body a little, and I could take a few steps on my own. I could finally talk a little, but very few people understood me. I could hear a little better also.
Finally I was released from the hospital, but all of my plans and dreams I had for my future were gone and all I was left with were the memories. It was hard to eccept at first and at times still is. It has taught me a few lessons I will never forget. First is no matter how strong, healthy, rich, or poor you are tragedy can strike you without warning. It taught me the true meaning of "WHAT IF!" What is meant by those two simple words, before you look or treat someone bad who is different think about "what if" that was me then how would I feel. Also before you say or do something mean to someone or thing think about "what if" it was them doing it to me then how would I feel. Finally is that no matter how bad off you are or feel about life there is someone someplace in the world worst off then you are!!!
Today I still have problems in what I do. I may not be able to walk, talk and hear like I use to, but I CAN still walk, talk and hear. I'm deaf in my right side, but I CAN hear. I have some nerve damage but I can do most of the things I use to do, maybe not as fast but I CAN do them. I'm proud of myself because I accomplished something that the doctors said was impossible! Thoughout all of my problems God has never left me and he did give me another chance in life. Why God? Because there was no way I could have survived with out the help of God.
