Unassigned
I have never broken a bone in my life.
Until last Thursday, that is. When I decided to break three. In my foot.
Except it wasn’t so much a decision as it just happened to me. Believe me, I didn’t wake up and say, “Morning, Self, let’s grab some coffee and then break a few bones today.”
This kind of stuff doesn’t really happen to me.
In fact, while I was waiting to talk to the orthopedic surgeon, my sister texted me and said, “Don’t worry, it’s not broken. Rushes don’t break bones.”
But, alas, I am currently three bones down and suddenly, monstrously at the mercy of crutches to get me to and fro.
Cue: panic, chaos and hysteria.
Something you must know about me is that I am self sufficient to a fault. It’s not that I don’t let people do things for me, or that I’m so wildly independent that I insist on always going about life alone. But when it comes to asking people to help me, I’m terrible.
I’d sooner wander the entire expanse of Home Depot looking for a dresser knob than pull someone aside and ask them to show me where they’re located. And that’s an instance where people are being paid to help me.
So you can imagine how difficult it was to realize that I cannot carry my coffee into another room without aid. That I often can’t pull the door shut behind me without considerable shuffling around.
But I realized quickly that these next few weeks of recovery are going to be impossible if I don’t learn how to humble myself and ask for help.
Because let’s face it: we waste a lot of time and breath sitting around asking why something happened – myself certainly included – when really, what if we channeled our energies into asking a different question entirely:
What can I learn from this?
And I will for sure be the first to fail. Later today I will cry tears of frustration when I try to carry my laptop bag out to my car on crutches. And in a few days I will feel sorry for myself when my friends go on bike rides or out dancing.
But life is going to be full of disappointments, setbacks and frustrations. And often – when compared to what people all across the world deal with – perspective will slap you in the face like an angry ex-girlfriend.
And here’s the skinny: I am where I am and I will inevitably be here again. So I might as well learn something from it.
And in the meantime, if you see me trying to attempt something ridiculous on crutches, see how long it takes me to ask for help.
Hey, no one ever said learning lessons was easy.
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