How I Am Ending Spinal Cord Awareness Month

Today is my final post for the month of September, which has been designated as Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Month. As I sit here reflecting on that tonight, I found it kind of interesting considering what my day has been today…and how I will start the month tomorrow.

Today I went to hands on training for a program called ThinkFirst program. This is a program that goes into public schools and teaches kids about brain and spinal cord safety. There is a presenter who does the teaching to the kids, and then there is a VIP who is someone who has a spinal cord injury that is there to tell there story and let the kids ask them question. I am training to be able to do either part. I am so excited and was honored to be asked to be a part of this!

Tomorrow morning, I wake up early and head to Georgia because our spinal cord support group is going zip lining! This has been on my bucket list for a long time and I mentioned it to our awesome director and she wrote a grant for it and got it! So, off a large group of us goes to an accessible camp for a day of zip lining, fishing, putt putt golf and anything else we can get into!

Why do I find all of this fascinating? Because, like I stated in this earlier post, the greatest awareness we can be is simply to be. Today’s activities for me will happen over this next school year – not just September. Tomorrow’s activities start the month of October and I hope many other adventures await me!

My friend, Donny, summed it up well today at the school we were at. Donny has been a quadriplegic for 29 years from a diving accident. He is one of the coolest people I know. He is a mechanic and is a the master of figuring things out! A young student asked him this today: “Is life easier for you now than it was at first?” Donny said, “No, every day is hard. But you go on, figure it out and enjoy it anyway. Don’t let obstacles stop your life.” Good answer Donny.

I hope that as this month ends, awareness does not. For my able bodied readers, I hope you will continue to learn! For my disabled readers, I hope you continue to get out every day and live! I am ending is month by starting over tomorrow. I hope you do too!

My friend, Donny