On the 22nd of May, 1991, exactly 22 years ago, I took a leap of faith…..into water that was shallower than I had imagined….and was paralyzed for life. The doctors thought that I would not survive, that I would not even make it to the hospital. Logically, the odds that I would die were huge.
Now, looking back, I think I did die. The miracle is that I was re-born; as a completely different individual. Just because of that little moment when I jumped, I was made to look at life in a completely different light. I had to go through tough times; I still am going through them, maybe now more than ever before. But, due to that incident, I discovered
1. The presence of God;
2. That so many people love me and care for me;
3. That no tragedy or accident is large enough to end your life; as long as you are still able to breathe and think, the possibilities in life are endless;
4. That life is too short for what one can achieve in it; I can do so much on a wheelchair that my life will probably end before I have achieved even half of it; so there is no use complaining of what you don’t have and what you can’t do, just concentrating on what you do have and what you can do makes you realize that you are blessed;
5. That so many people out there spend their life complaining and I can do a lot to motivate them to transform from complainers to achievers;
6. That problems are never too big, sometimes we are too small;
7. That nothing is impossible;
8. That a life spent trying to go beyond elastic limit, is the only life worth spending;
9. That people who take their destiny in their own hands succeed, and those who wait for others or fate to come and change their life, keep waiting; and
10. That life is good.
Sometimes I wonder if I would have realized all these things if I had not had that accident. Sometimes I wonder if the accident was the best thing that ever happened to me. Sometimes I wonder if we would ever learn to appreciate life and not wait for accidents to come and teach us.
Sarmad Tariq 