Anyone who knows me.....

....knows that I'm a BIGTIME news junkie...  Day's without the evening news are mostly incomplete for me...  I'm not sure what it is, since most of the time, politics bore me, it must be the local news, and of course the sports news...  I definitely look forward to a good ol' sports update...  ;)

I mostly am addicted to the news broadcasts though that show a person overcoming something most of us will never even have to think about...  I see these stories and often "follow" up on them...  Remember John Wilhite?  the college student that was involved in the accident that killed that angels pitcher a few years ago?  I followed that story for almost a year, and I couldn't of been happier when I heard he was getting to come home, I had a class with him in college, centuries ago, and although we never really talked there or after I was intrigued by his story, the determination he had to get better, the hope his family had, which is what ultimately got him thru and the perseverence that he shows even to this day...  The there was the story of that bus full of college students that crashed going up the mountain almost a year ago, they lost their coach and two others, and a couple of kids were badly injured, just the other night I saw on the news that the one kid who survived his injuries, was getting ready to go home....  ALMOST a year later... you can read the article   here.... 

as I was reading the article I wondered WHY?  WHY do these stories intrigue me so?  Why is it that as I was reading the article I got teary eyed when it states that now he must go back into the world, and his parents wonder "what will people think of the way he looks?" will they be nice?  I so badly want to take this kid into my arms and tell him that NO people wont be nice...  people will stare and be mean, and that he's going to have to figure out a way to just go on...  it may not be that bad, but people are mean, I'm not sure they mean too...  but they are just the same...
I know these stories intrigue me because they're an inspiration to me...  these stories intrigue me because they show me how strong these people are...  they remind me that if my day is bad, someone else is having an even worse one, and they probably have a better attitude than I do, these stories really put everyday life and worries in perspective!  ;)

I know, I think these stories intrigue me because I was once one of them, granted my accident wasn't as bad, (and I was younger, I can't say what the "attitude" outcome would of been if I had been older!)  but it was an accident that completely changed my life, the way I look, the way I follow seatbelt rules.... The way I look at life, even the way I go about my everyday life....  I, like them, got a second chance, a second chance to live my life, to serve my purpose, to help people, but also to understand that not all people want to be "helped," It was also a time when I learned about compassion. There was a point in my life when I had to have determination, and perseverence, and when my parents had to have hope... and for that I am grateful because it has made me the person I am today!! :) 

Car accidents forever scare me, they almost haunt me, and they definitely cause a great deal of anxiety for me, maybe that's another reason why?  maybe it's because of this fear, and the hope that the people involved were lucky enough to get a second chance like I did?? 
stories like these remind me that,
"Life really is 10% what happens to us, and 90% what we do with what happens to us!"