Humbly Courageous

Hello and welcome back to another blog! GRIT, what does that word mean to you when you hear it? The first thought that comes to mind for me is ceaselessly digging deep. Is it ok to say of yourself...I would use the word grit to define myself? I think so! I think grit is what helps us survive in this life. Without it, what would we really be? For some I think it’s required from the beginning to survive, for others I think it’s something that suddenly is needed to survive. Either way, I think it’s in us all. It’s when and how we choose to tap into it that it takes on it’s true meaning within us.  My dad and me G.R.I.T.    Guts, resilience, initiative, tenacity. These are all words that for me have been in my being from the beginning. Not because I wanted them to be, but because to survive I had to possess these qualities. Not because I think I’m so great, but because I had to find a way around a lifelong physical disability in order to live well.  Guts…this is one for me that stands out.

Hello and welcome back to another blog! Thanks for being here. I recently came across something I wrote down that I heard a speaker say last year at my church.  He said, “when we find the intersection of what breaks God’s heart, and what breaks our heart, we then find God’s mission for us.  Muscular dystrophy breaks my heart. At any given point in a day, I could probably just stop and sob if I think about all MD has robbed me of, and has for 47 years. My whole life. It tries its best to hold me back daily. My mind longs to do SO much that I cannot accomplish in my weakened body. My drive is strong, my body is not.  I’ve really come to love and respect this scooter! It breaks my heart, it does. It breaks my heart to see all of my fellow MD warriors fighting battles way bigger than mine. I think it breaks God’s heart too. So, therein lies my mission. My mission is Muscular Dystrophy. My mission is making the best of what I have, and helping others along the way that need to get to that p

Hello and welcome back! I always get a look of shock when I tell people I went to 4 different colleges. I jokingly like to refer to my time in college as the Indiana college tour. Kind of holds some truth to it. Sit back, relax and enjoy the tour…. My first acceptance was to Purdue University. I was excited to gain acceptance into such a great school even though I had pretty much bombed the SAT…standardized tests and I don’t go together. I was kind of surprised that I got accepted because my high school counselor had in a nutshell told me that I just wasn’t smart, and likely had a learning disability. What he based that on I’m not sure. I think he assumed because I was physically disabled, I also had a learning disability. I will give it to him that I was terrible at Algebra, but even if I did have a learning disability (which I didn’t), that or a physical disability was not a reason not to attend college if that’s what I desired to do! My main goal heading into college was to go into

Hello and welcome back! I used to spend a lot of time daydreaming about what it would be like to live in a non- disabled body. I would envision myself as walking without a limp, running, running up stairs, heck just climbing stairs easily! I would think, how nice would it be to be able to rise in the morning and step out of bed barefoot and not feel a thing? No worries about what would physically happen. Just feel carefree. I find that since I’ve embraced my whole self more, and become more open, I don’t “daydream” about those things as often. Sure, I still think about them from time to time, but I don’t spend much time longing for those things like I used to. I find that I’m allowing myself to enjoy the challenges a little more. I feel much more accomplished when I am able to do simple tasks that others may take for granted. I’m proud of myself for the amount of tasks and duties I can accomplish in a day. I like to reflect on everything I did at the end of my day. It’s not that I don’