What a thread! Some good stuff on here.
When I was 18,I was driving my GEO Metro up the Interstate, and I was promptly run over by an 18-wheeler, and dragged underneath his rig for 9/10 of a mile (a friend measured the skid marks). Promptly went to "The Edge" of life's door and given a choice about whether I would stay or not. I had contemplated suicide for sometime up to that point. I stayed, and was sent to a lousy hospital in Dalton, GA. The treatment was as bad as the accident. Long story short, I didn't take all the doctor's advice to have my spine fused in all vertebrates except for 4-5, and lie in bed for 1-2 years before learning to walk again.
What I did do was listen to someone who had been mentoring me named R.B. Benton. He was a Vietnam era SEAL, who wanted to help me get into the Teams before all this happened. His "you can do anything" attitude sank into me and I believed I could beat the odds. EVERYONE around me offered nothing but negative reinforcement. After 1 1/2-2 years, I rehabed out of it. I used martial arts (modified), stretching, chiropractors, massage therapy, and Native American healing traditions, and healed. To prove to myself that I was really indestructible (you tend to do that at that age) After nearly two years after the accident, when I was moving around pretty good, I fought in a national level martial arts tournament. It was round robin and I had over 8 fights, continuous 2 minute rounds of hard to full contact. I didn't win a single fight that day, but I was there and nobody can say that they whipped my butt. (I was told by the doctors that I would be paralyzed for life if I got hit). I'm still kicking today.
The thing that has taken the most strength for me is to have a wife and two children. To be the best father that I can be and to keep working to provide for them and give them a good life. Compared to that, fights are easy.
David
