I ran across a story in the Sacramento Bee, yes occasionally I will still read the newspaper when I go doo doo! Anyway the story which was quite inspirational was about Jill Mason who was living her life to the fullest, she was a young 20 something, a triathlete, she ran marathons, had a great career in marketing and also found love with fellow triathlete Alan Liu. She  had her passions all lined up, being active, career and on top of it love, Jill’s life was looking pretty good. Until Easter morning in 2004 her life would go in a direction none of us dream of or plan for, she and Alan were hit by a drunken driver whose alcohol level measured more  than four times the legal limit.  Alan was killed and Jill was left paralyzed,  but on top of that she also  has injury to her brain that limits her motor function, her right arm is numb and basically useless and she has gaping holes in her memory and cognitive ability.

She could have called it quits and just sunk into some deep dark depression and become an angry bitter person, not that she hasn’t or still has days where she feels somewhat depressed, understandably so, but the years since this happened she has dominated her time with rehabilitation, relearning the basics of everyday life, from changing clothes to using the bathroom to seeking to restore long and short term memory.  Now at 32 she lives independently  in a house she owns, she works closely with a program called Every 15 Minutes which educates students on the perils of drinking and driving, she also volunteers to help physical therapy students at Sac State and she has a specially equipped hand cycle that she mounts and heads out for solo training rides. This is a woman who was living life to the fullest before and hasn’t let this turn of events change that spirit within  her she continues to keep living her life, not just going thru the motions but actually living each day.

When she was in College she was an English major and knew that someday she wanted to write a book but  didn’t really have a topic just yet. Well  as she says exclaiming “This gave me a topic!, she has completed her book, “Couldn’t Happen to Me: A Life Changed by Paralysis and Traumatic Brain Injury.” I mean come on, this woman is living more fully than a lot of able bodied folks! A lot of us are just full of excuses instead of being full of life! She gets up knows her challenges and does not let them stop her, she keeps moving forward, I love the quote from Jill at the end of the story….”This is not the life I’d chosen,” But it’s my life now. I try to just think of the next goal and move toward that. And right now I’m thinking, ‘OK, what’s next?’” I hope that kind of attitude gives you inspiration for your life and whatever you have going on in it, this gal is living proof that life can be Wonderful!