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Uncomfortable Situations
By Christian Bagg
Oct 22, 2004, 09:27

Uncomfortable Situations

With so many aspects of the ‘disabled’ life to write about, I find myself struggling with what to write about first. .

Do I talk about the humour and irony of a security guard yelling at me to get off an escalator on the very same day I rolled up to a rental car kiosk, presented my license and credit card and proceeded to the car, duck taping my golf clubs, uh I mean hand controls, to the pedals and driving off - with a friendly wave from the rental guy to boot? I will talk about these things when the situations arise, but today it dawned on me that if I didn’t do the things I wasn’t so sure about at first I would never have learned the things I have.

I despise anything dubbed ‘inspirational’ which is not to say that I’m not inspired by things. I just think some of the most truly inspirational things are done entirely by accident or out of complete stupidity. What’s inspirational to me may be idiocy to someone else, like my mother for example. .

I was reading an article about this 30-year-old guy who did the Ironman. He didn’t do particularly well; in fact a 76-year-old man beat him (also inspirational). Unlike the preparation and pacing the 76-year-old primed for, our 30-year-old friend had never run farther than 14 miles in his life, hadn’t really ridden a bike since he was 15 and had to learn the front crawl just for the race. He ended up eight miles from the finish line on his hands and knees with pains he described as ‘akin to giving birth.’ Just as he was about to give up, a 50-something female competitor yelled, “Get up! Only eight more miles and you’ll be an Ironman. You can’t quit now. If you’re sick, that’s normal. Put your fingers down your throat and you’ll be fine.”.

He did and he finished the race to screams of, “You’re an Ironman now baby.” This gave me chills. This guy clearly shouldn’t have finished the race. He probably shouldn’t even have entered it, but he did, and now he has an amazing story to tell and a pretty good idea of his physical capabilities. Here’s someone who wanted to do something, got a general idea of how to do it, and then went for it. As far as I’m concerned, finish or no finish, his endeavour was a success. .

Some of the best times I’ve had since breaking my back have been while doing things that I was at first uncomfortable with, whether it was dancing, skiing or being thrown from a 35-foot bridge into a freezing mountain stream.

I didn’t want to do these things because I was scared. Scared of what people would think, scared of sucking and scared of being hurt. But after it’s all over, you’ll know a little more about yourself and your capabilities. So go out and do something uncomfortable. It just may be the most rewarding and “inspirational” (ugh) thing you do.



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