The Tree That Changed the Way I Look at Life

What if. Those are two strong words when put together. Looking back at my life I ask a lot of “what ifs.”

What if I kept playing soccer when I was younger, instead of switching over to football?

What if I wasn’t so shy when I was younger?

What if my grandpa had lived longer so I could talk to him, instead of passing away when I was 1?

But above all else one “what if” comes to mind more than anything else. It lands on a day that changed me and changed the way I look at people and life. Fifteen years ago, we were at my grandparents’ house in Branson, Missouri. It was new years day. There was fresh snow on the ground and my dad and I decided to go sledding.

I had just gotten this new red sled for Christmas and I wanted to try it out in the backyard. I had tried out the sled before but every time I would ride it down a hill, it would turn all the way around and I’d be riding backwards down the hill.

My grandparent’s backyard wasn’t the best to go sledding in, it was a large slanted hill that had oak trees everywhere. If I would come up on it now, I’d never go sledding down it, but me being the astatic seven year old kid wanting to go sledding, I was able to convince my dad to let me do it.

He decided to go with me, we were able to find a clean line through the trees as we lined up the sled. My dad sat in front and I sat behind him (bad idea). We went down for the first run of the day, and that’s when it happened.

The next thing I remember was slowly waking up in my grandmas big arm chair. Everyone was crowded around me and was very worried. When I awoke I had blurred vision for about the first minute or so. I had no idea what went on and I still can’t remember what happened to this day.

Apparently we went down the hill and about halfway down the sled turned backwards. It whipped us around so fast that it threw my dad clean off the sled. I was still on it, but now turned backwards, I couldn’t see where I was going.

That’s when it hit, the sled slammed straight on into a tree, with the back of my head hitting it first, knocking me out cold. My dad told me he was horrified. He said he ran over to me, shook me and tried to wake me up, but to no avail. He thought for a spilt second that I was dead. While my dad was pulling me up the hill, he told me I was asking him the typical amnesia questions, all with my eyes closed. Who am I? Where am I? Who are you?

I have no recollection of this.

My memory came back when I awoke but I had a splitting headache for the rest of the day and into the night. With it being a holiday, we had to wait a day to take me to the hospital. That night was one of the worst I’ve ever had, filled with head throbbing, vomiting, and getting little to no sleep.

As bad luck would have it, my two year old sister would have an ear infection that same night and was screaming constantly. Looking back on it now, I can’t imagine how my parents and grandparents got through that night.

We rushed to the hospital the next morning, me still puking in the lobby when we got there. I was wheeled to the CAT scan room in a wheel chair and the procedure began.

After all was said and done, the doctor showed us a picture of my brain and told us I had suffered a concussion and had no severe brain damage. Needless to say I never used that sled again and I never went sledding in that backyard again.

It was an event that shook us all. My parents thought I was dead and when I awoke they thought that I had damaged my brain. I had never seen my family that scared before, it made me realize that they really cared about me and didn’t want to lose me.

It’s something I’ll always look back on and be thankful I’m still here today along with being thankful that nothing worse happened to my brain.

That’s the big “what if” I still have. What if I suffered severe brain damage from that accident? What if I had died? It’s very eerie to think about.

Looking back on the accident, it has made me appreciate life more, along with my friends and family. I wouldn’t be where I am now if something worse happened on that day.

Enjoy life as it is. Be thankful for what you have and who you’re with. Because you never know when you might lose it all in the blink of an eye.