ED

Hi, my name is Eddie.Imagine being told by someone that you will NEVER walk again!!!“I’m not living the life I thought I would…… but it does have it’s meaning, purpose. There is joy, there is love, there is laughter.”When I was younger, I never gave it much attention to how life would be if something major happened in my life. It’s amazing how much you take your life for granted and feel like nothing can hurt you.I was 23 when this happened in my life. I went on a snowmobile trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to have a great time with a friend, never even thinking of the consequences of what could happen.I lived a very active lifestyle. I remember it as the worst nightmare of my life. I remember hammering the throttle and then seeing a hard right turn in the trail and I lost control of my snowmobile. I hit the ground at over 70 m.p.h., my friend thought I was just joking when I was laying there not being able to feel or move my legs. It resulted in me being a paraplegic and in a wheelchair for the rest of my life.I shattered my spine, I broke the 9th, 10th, and 11th vertebra in my back. I also collapsed both of my lungs. Along with cracking four ribs on my right side.I can still here the doctor’s voice in the back of my head as he went along my lower body with a Q-tip asking me “can you feel this?”, “NO!”, “How about now?”, “Um, no….. Wait!” “I can feel that now.” as he passes by my belly.I’ll never forget the days of how easy it was to just get up and go. To be able to walk and go anywhere.I never realized how much my family and friends worried about me and loved me.I was really close to my family when I was younger but began to drift from them as I became older.When I turned nineteen I became involved with my father’s business and with the business he is vice president at. I had myself involved in the Laborer’s Union, and ran a crew of 7 laborer’s. I stayed with the company up until my accident. It really was a great experience, if this never happened in my life I could of really made something of myself.But, because I have such a awesome, fun, loving family, and friends, with there support is how I made it through what happened in my life. We all have a choice of how we are going to live our lives. You can either choose to be negative or positive. I myself have never been a negative person. That’s how I get through the life I now live day by day.I realize now that I can accomplish anything I want to in my life.“For everyone who thought I couldn’t do it. For everyone who thought I shouldn’t do it. For everyone who said, ‘It’s impossible.’ See you at the finish line!” (Christopher Reeve)