By Douglas V. Gibbs
Trials make us stronger. The Storms of Life teach us the lessons we need to learn to be better people. Failure instructs us about our journey toward success.
While at Corona High School many many years ago I was on the Cross Country team. My sophomore year was the first time I had really done any kind of running beyond up and down the basketball court. I was junior varsity all year long, and sadly, usually the race wasn't over until Doug came across the finish line.
My junior year I decided I wanted a varsity letter, and the varsity jacket to put that letter on, so I put a little effort into it, and then in the final meet of the year, the league final where all six teams of the league competed together, I latched on to the fastest runner in the race, Randy Gray, and stayed with him for the entire three miles. He was taller, and had longer legs, so in the final sprint he beat me. . . but I placed second place, and for me that was huge. I was rewarded with the most improved trophy at the awards ceremony for the team at the end of the year, and set my sights on CIF for the next year.
That race was one of the hardest things I had ever done. Before that I had been casually running, doing just well enough to gain the points needed for my varsity letter. But for some reason, in that race where I placed 2nd, I really wanted it. The race was not easy, and it took just about every inch of energy in me, but I believed it was worth having enough to go through the struggle, and the pain.
When I was in the United States Navy I had an accident that left me with a left temporal fracture, a severely damaged left knee cap, holes in my lower left leg, a twisted back, a neck injury, hemorraged eyes, a laceration across my face that left my right cheek bone exposed, nerve damage, and deafness in my left ear. The resulting tinnitus in my left ear drove me nuts, and the severe seizure disorder and mental retardation made it nearly impossible for me to properly function. I was on a respirator for a week, drained spinal fluid from my left year for three days, was brought into the intensive care unit with zero percent oxygen in my blood, and I had the most dangerous kind of head injury anyone could have. Statistically, just being alive was a miracle, but my wife was warned I would probably be in a vegetative state for the rest of my life, and she would need to provide for me in regards to everything. Miraculously, I did not die, and after a couple months I was cognizant of what was going on around me. I had to learn how to walk all over again, working my way from a wheel chair, to a cane, to my own two feet. I had to learn to communicate better, I had to work on my damaged memory to make it stronger, and I had to cope with the high number of seizures I was suffering.
I concluded this was not the way I wanted to live. God had kept me alive for a reason, and I wasn't about to just accept the reality that I had invited to flop down on my lap.
After two years I worked my way from barely able to function, to fully functioning. Eight years after the accident, my seizure disorder was resolved, as well. My brain learned to reroute the signals away from the damaged area of my brain. I had been a bright kid before the accident, and I wasn't about to let some little situation that nearly killed me keep me away from my potential.
Most folks, when I tell them this story, don't believe it, not only because I function fairly normally, but because I have a lot of knowledge on a lot of things, which gives them the feeling that I am a rather smart individual.
I am not smart. I spilled my brains on the highway. I wanted to be more than average, I wanted to conquer my injuries, and that desire was stronger than any feeling of just getting by. It was a hard road, but I made it.
Nothing ever comes easy. We have wishes and desires, but the road to achieve them is difficult and long. We tend to throw our hands up and just do what it takes to get by, because that is so much easier. But, if what you want, whatever it may be, was easy, everyone would have it, or be it. That is why anything worth having never comes easy. So, the question is, does what you want hold more value than your desire to be complacent?
How bad do you want what you know you can achieve if you would just put your mind to it?
Pray about it. . . and do it.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
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