“What’s your date? You know, the date when the phone rang, a friend moved, a partner walked out, the unexpected and unwanted became the new reality? What’s the date when the life you planned dramatically and painfully changed forever?” – John O’Leary
February 21, 1998 is the date when everything changed for me. It’s a day I don’t even remember, yet one I will never forget. It’s a date that impacted my life forever yet fails to dictate my future.
From a healthy 11-year-old kid playing baseball and golf, to one diagnosed with bacterial meningitis, spending 3 months in a coma only to wake up totally blind, hearing impaired and too weak to even sit up. This was more than 20 years ago, and I could have never imagined then that I would have completed my 13th triathlon last weekend.
My friends, the human spirit is so powerful. Nothing is impossible. I wanted to share these photos, not only to show how far I personally have come, but to demonstrate the true strength we all have within. We all might have that date that changed us, but change happens everyday. When we can believe this and keep moving forward, only the best is yet to come.
