The following narrative was written by my daughter in 2016. I discovered it recently and wanted to share her inspirational story.
I took a moment today to reflect on where i was five years ago today. I was in a wheelchair, going through rehab to combat the disorder that paralyzed me. I was going to physical therapy in the morning, high school in the afternoon, and spending my evenings doing homework for both. I was living in our home office like a stranger in my own house because my room was down 13 steps that I couldn’t climb. I needed escorts everywhere I went. I needed extensions and make up tests and equipment and a cocktail of 8 medicines just to keep myself going.
And so many people thought i wouldn’t be able to do it. They told me I’d never walk again, that i wouldn’t graduate in 2011, let alone walk to get my diploma that very year. They told me i wouldn’t go to college the next year, let alone get my engineering degree four years later. And find a job right out of school. And find the love of my life before 21. And be able to pay my student loans easily.
But do you want to know the thing nobody saw coming? That i would start running races and biking and climbing and dancing. That i would run my first race only fourteen months after paralysis. That i would run further and further every year, each step pounding another “i told you so” into their faces. They didn’t believe it would happen. But I knew. And I told them to their faces five years ago that my God is more powerful than any disorder. They scoffed and handed me a cane.
I handed it back.