While I made progress on the physical front, there was also much I had learnt as a person during my time in CMCH and RI. Even in the condition that I was in, I realised how much there is to be happy about. In fact after the accident I never felt like I was a cursed person, I always believed I was blessed. I believed that I was blessed to be alive. But over here, I realised why I felt that way and that there's a lot more I was blessed with..
I met so many different people at Rehabilitation Institute. Along with paraplegics, RI also offers therapy for quadriplegics ( people paralysed down from their neck ) and people who have injured their brain through accidents. The people there had injured themselves through various ways, some common, some not so. Motorcycle accidents and falls while climbing trees were more common. Some injured themselves playing pranks while some other injured themselves doing regular chores at home or work. When they gave an account of the the accidents that caused their injury, I realised how different each persons individual stories were.
In contrast to my tale, some of their lives changed all too suddenly. Within a matter of days, some of them had gone from being perfectly to healthy, to people who bear the burden of being differently abled. I was in the ICU for a matter of weeks. Though my time there was challenging for various reason, one good thing about the long and arduous stay was that the information about my SCI and my future wasn't clearly put in front of me immediately. Even when people around me gave in to my pestering questions about why I couldn't move my legs, I didn't spend much time thinking about how it would affect my life. I surely had a lot of other things think about in the present. By the time I was thinking straight and truly understood the magnitude of my situation, I had gone through so much in the ICU that I was grateful to God to just be alive and breathing, literally.
The way things happened in those initial stages moulded my attitude of my life post the ordeal. For such was the magnitude of the initial injuries and the pains that I faced during recovery that instead of facing despair at losing half my body, I was just happy that I hadn't lost it all along with my life. Some people may not need to go through all that I did in order to look at life with positivity. But for many others it's hard to feel as such. Perhaps I as a person am one who needed to go through these struggles to be able to come out of it in good cheer..? I can never be sure, only God will know. But I feel so..
I believe in the scriptures, and I don't believe that anything happens randomly. Everything happens for a reason. And the scripture says that "..all things work together for good, to those who love God" in Romans 8:28. In hindsight, I believe God planned out everything so that I might be able to hold in my heart that feeling of joy in being alive through these days. Had I never met such lovely people at RI who shared their experiences with me either directly or through a group, I wouldn't have realised some of the good in that journey filled with hardship..
Knowledge is precious gift that I received in RI. Apart from having systematic classes that discussed topics related to health and wellness for SCI affected people, the people of RI also gave me an insight into their lives and despite their challenges, how they are still being productive. Some take up regular jobs in the government or in IT companies. Some embrace their creative side. A few take up sports.. ( ever heard of Paralympics..? ), while a few others involve themselves in activism. While I heard all these stories, I had the chance to look at it in a way that someone without SCI or someone who is strongly connected with someone with SCI couldn't take notice. I looked at it all through a different lens. If I had never visited RI, and had instead stayed at home, all this could never have happened. Still, till this day I haven't emulated any of them. But at least it helped me know that I am capable..
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