Late this afternoon, Andrew and I decided to head to Borders to hang out. He really loves reading magazines and drinking coffee in the cafe area and I felt like getting out of the house, so we got our Starbucks and settled in. I was checking out a few different books and Andrew was engrossed in a magazine when I felt someone looking at me.
A young, blonde girl walking with a cane was standing over me. She smiled in recognition, and I blinked a few times as she approached our table.
“Amy?! Did you go to Rocklin High?” she asked in slow, deliberate speech.
I nearly fell out of my chair.
The last time I saw this girl, she was a junior in high school. She was blonde, sassy and vivacious. Some might have even said she had a bit of an attitude, an edge to her, and though she and I had a class or two together and always got along fine, that was not always the case for her and her peers. But most of all, she was alive. Blissfully normal. A teenage girl with her whole future ahead of her. I know she’d planned on college and a full life and it seemed that she’d get it. I lost track of her by my senior year, as she’d moved on to attend a continuation high school.
But tonight, she stood in front of me at Borders, a completely different girl than the one I’d known 10 years prior.
She explained to me that she’d fallen out of an 8th story window during a random trip to Chicago she’d taken at age 21. Her back, neck and pelvis had been broken, and she’d worked her way from a wheelchair to a walker to a cane. Her speech was slow and she had clearly been affected both mentally and physically by this devastating accident. She explained that her goal was to finish an Easter Seals re-hab program, stop using her cane completely and go back to her job selling gym memberships at 24-Hour Fitness and attend a college closer to Sacramento. Her eyes filled with tears when she shared that some of her friends weren’t the same after her accident, and that they’d “ditched her.” She told me she loves church and working out and still has so much hope for a normal life, one where she can work in marketing and spend time with her friends and family.
She asked about my life, and told Andrew I was lovely and seemed so sweet and grateful to simply be up and moving around and alive.
This year has completely overwhelmed me with reminders of how quickly things can change. One minute, my grandma was just my healthy, active, normal grandma until she ate something terrible and was nearly killed by silent bacteria. One doctor’s appointment completely altered my dad’s life, starting us down a journey that has changed our family. And now, to see a girl that was young, vibrant and alive completely changed by something so crazy and random.
It makes you think. It makes me think about all of my first-world problems I spend time complaining about. It makes me think about how darn grateful I should be for every day when I can walk, breathe, hug, live and enjoy the life I’ve been given. It makes me want to stop focusing on all of the crap that life hands us, and start focusing on the gift that is every single NORMAL day, when we can just exist. It drives home the point once again that life, no matter how difficult, is a BLESSING. I know that these are cheesy sentiments usually reserved for Hallmark’s “Encouragement” section, but I feel like life has hit me over the head this year with this truth: BE GRATEFUL, be brave, be alive.
I hugged her as she left and she asked if I hang out at Borders a lot. I told her we do, and I meant it when I said I hope I see her again. And when she walked away, I brushed tears from my cheeks.
18 Comments so far
Leave a comment
Whenever I think feel the snarcky voices rise up to tell me that it’s cheesy to think of life as a blessing, I remind myself that the greatest dis-service I can do to myself, the world, and particularly those who suffer more than me–is to live as if life is anything OTHER than a blessing.
[Reply]
By Kate on 11.22.09 8:56 pm | Permalink
That is a great story!!! You’re right, all of those little things we complain about are so silly…
[Reply]
By Alyssa on 11.22.09 10:01 pm | Permalink
Thank you for sharing this story. For reminding me of everything I have for which to be grateful. For posting this today, a day when I feel I am done with being unhappy.
” It makes me want to stop focusing on all of the crap that life hands us, and start focusing on the gift that is every single NORMAL day, when we can just exist. It drives home the point once again that life, no matter how difficult, is a BLESSING.” This especially hit home with me, and I hope to use it as the motivation to turn my thoughts around.
[Reply]
By Mandy on 11.22.09 10:11 pm | Permalink
Wow, it’s amazing enough that she survived the initial fall, but to have come so far and be up and walking around, and with goals to be even more mobile and live a regular life with a career and so on is phenomenal. Many people would have given up at the first hurdle and lay around feeling sorry for themselves, collecting disability from the government. Truly inspirational, and definitely a reminder that we have it easy compared to others who not only face such hardship, but work so hard to get out of that hardship and live a great and happy life.
[Reply]
By Nicola on 11.23.09 12:54 am | Permalink
You’re right. Only a few of us truly appreciate the value of life. We complain about a lot of stuff (like pimples, traffic and the heat) when we all have tons of things to be thankful for.
This is such a beautiful reminder to love life, even if it gives you the whole bucket of lemons.
Love this post!
XOXO
thepinkrigmaroles.blogspot.com
[Reply]
By auishtha on 11.23.09 2:25 am | Permalink
Sometimes it’s hard to admit we take life for granted but it’s such an amazing lesson…no matter how many times I need reminding. A lovely story and reminder
[Reply]
By Carolina Escobedo-Garcia on 11.23.09 4:18 am | Permalink
What a great post – I remember being absolutely shocked at a get-together I went to with some people I’d gone to high school with YEARS and years ago – seeing the class clown who’s now a doctor, and hearing about the girl who was top of the class, tall, beautiful, hung out with the cheerleaders – got some horrible disease and actually passed away. It’s so bizarre how things can change – and even in my own life, in high school I was SUPER quiet, shy, kept to myself and totally had no self confidence at all, and it’s so interesting to look back a few years and how drastically different things are now
[Reply]
By Emily Jane on 11.23.09 8:09 am | Permalink
What a great story…a moving story. Sometimes you hear about people who see others from their past and are grateful they aren’t them. This was a story of being grateful that you are you. And alive.
I love it.
[Reply]
By Kim on 11.23.09 8:55 am | Permalink
I actually was just thinking the same thing this weekend, although my inspiration is a bit lamer (i.e. a young adult novel about a girl who through a terrorist attack loses her ability to walk) but it is a pretty incredible thing to be healthy, happy and whole. Definitely something to be grateful for
[Reply]
By Abby on 11.23.09 9:13 am | Permalink
A beautiful story. We should always be grateful for our health, our ability to walk, talk, and love without difficulty. This story reminds us to keep things in perspective. Thank you for sharing it.
[Reply]
By Maria on 11.23.09 9:14 am | Permalink
Ohhh my goodness. What a story… What a reminder of how brief this all is, how we shouldn’t take a moment of life for granted.
[Reply]
By Hannah on 11.23.09 9:55 am | Permalink
This made me cry. I hope you do get to see her again, because you obviously encouraged her and gave her a reason to smile (as you do so many people, Amy). I just love that you are such an emotional soul who is willing to open up to people without a second thought. I love this about you – you have one of the most giving and caring spirits.
(And now I get to tell you that I will have something in the mail to you by the end of this week! I hope you’ll look forward to receiving it!)
[Reply]
By Emily on 11.23.09 11:47 am | Permalink
That’s amazing. The universe is definitely telling you something.
[Reply]
By Andrea on 11.23.09 1:01 pm | Permalink
a perfect story to share. it’s amazing how many things we take for granted. and just how easily life can change in an instant.
xo
[Reply]
By lindsey on 11.23.09 1:12 pm | Permalink
Such a great story. I’m always grateful of the fact that I am reasonably healthy and can walk/run on my own two feet. It’s something that can change in an instant – driving to work and BAM! Your life is instantly changed.
It’s also encouraging to hear how hard she has fought back to live. Her life changed in an instant and she could have stayed in that wheechair but she wasn’t content with that – she fought to live.
[Reply]
By Stephany on 11.23.09 5:22 pm | Permalink
What a story! I’m glad that your classmate has made such a strong recovery. It’s amazing (and rather scary) to think of how quickly things can change. When I encounter similar stories, I also feel incredibly thankful.
[Reply]
By A Super Girl on 11.23.09 8:00 pm | Permalink
You know, you’re so right. Life can and does change in a matter of moments.
That’s why couting your blessings is so important.
[Reply]
By nahl on 11.25.09 11:03 am | Permalink
Wow, thank you so much for sharing that story. It is so freaking crazy to think how quickly your life can be turned upside down. I need to be reminded of that sometimes.
[Reply]
By Jill Pilgrim on 11.28.09 7:05 pm | Permalink
Leave a comment