On the Mat Yet Again...

I've recently had hip surgery and it has, like my hip surgery in 1999, been a difficult one to recover from (explaining why it's been such a long time between posts). My body sure can't recover like it did when I was a kid. I've lost weight, like I do after every surgery I have, but it's definitely affecting me more at 25. Yet, despite my slow recovery, I know I will heal and move on with my life.

People with disabilities often have countless surgeries and experience great pain that few without disabilities can say they've experienced. I've had 14 surgeries, and this is on the low end compared to others my age who have the same disability as I do. Fourteen punches that have knocked me to the mat and still I get up (cue Rocky theme music). I get up because I refuse to lie down and accept the fate that some in society think is my fate, just as my parents refused to believe the fate doctors said would be mine. I get up because I want more out of life, I want to experience a rewarding career, I want to experience true love and a family of my own. I get up because my theme music is not yet written.

Recently, another man has been knocked to the mat yet again, just as I have. For those of you that follow the NBA, you will know that Alonzo Mourning was injured with a torn ACL, which, given his age, may end his career. For those that don't know Mourning, let me tell you about him. For just over 8 years Mourning was a dominating force in the league and then he was stopped dead in his tracks by kidney disease. He had a transplant and few thought he would play again... but he did and has become a hero figure to many. Do I think he'll be back? I'm not sure but I wouldn't put it past him.

There's a lot to be said in the quality of a man or woman who just won't stay down. If you keep getting up again and again, heavy hitters eventually get tired and you get the best of them. I'm going to keep getting up so I can get the best out of life.