Necessity of Events…

I know that the people who read this will already know much of what I am going to say, but I feel like these things are important to say anyway. About two years ago (just over infact), I was diagnosed with Epilepsy. I struggled at first, anyone who says they didn’t when confronted with something like that is lying. I lost my Drivers License, the nursing degree I had planned on starting, and a great deal of trust in myself. Who knows when I could have a fit and lose it… how could I look people in the eye after something like that and how could I live the life I wanted with that hanging over my shoulders. I joined an Epilepsy support forum and was shocked by the sheer number of people doing the an amazing number of things. So… I decided to do those things as well.

Shortly after I was diagnosed I left the country. I went to Ireland and the United Kingdom. From there onward to Turkey and Republic of Georgia. I came home and finished my degree and left again, this time for Israel to work on my Masters degree.

I do not believe, and did not even in those first moments, that I was defined by this… but maintaining that can be difficult. Sometimes it’s easy to let fear win… to want to go home and never leave again, but I see a future for myself that is global in scale. I believe that the person I am growing to be is steady and strong.

I’m laying in bed in an Israeli hospital. I’m the only one on the block who speaks no Hebrew. It’s an Epilepsy ward and for the first time I’m surrounded by people who understand exactly how I feel… and I can’t say a word of that to them.

I’m not disheartened… I’m lucky. Some friends will disagree with that, but I continue to believe that I am one of the luckiest people alive. I believe that even as things get rocky, I can and will rise above.

I’ve been places and seen things in my short life that some people will never see. I stood in the Black Sea. I gave a piece of myself to a Hawthorn tree on the Hill of Tara… to name a few.

I think about what is to come and I am filled with a giddy excitement and all consuming hope.

That is the true blessing of life. Things can and will get you down, but when you let it experience is a patient teacher and will provide you will a whole new outlook on life.

“There are no mistakes. The events we bring upon ourselves, no matter how unpleasant, are necessary in order to learn what we need to learn; whatever steps we take, they’re necessary to reach the places we’ve chosen to go.”

Richard Bach