What Brad said really struck me.

It's true you should live life as if you have no tommorrow, but you should
also respect life because there may be a tommorrow.

I'm sure everyone knows of stories of people who had made studip decisions
or just had accidents doing risky stuff, but I have one more for you. I
have died twice. Not the hindi stuff about past reincarnation, but actually
being resecuted twice.

I guess I should begin at the beginning. When I was 16, my family had 5
horses. One of these, was only half broken in and very difficult to control
especially when he got scared. He was also very fast. Consequentially, he
was my favorite. The day after Thanksgiving in 1996, my mom, sister, and I
took three horse out for an extended ride. Since we rode western it wasn't
customary to wear a helmet, so we never thought to wear one. On the way
back, my horse spoked and ran. He tried to turn on a nearby road and
slipped. falling he slammed me into the ground.
I was immediately knocked uncontious. Within a minute, my brain began to
swell and I went into shock. My heart stopped for the first time before the
ambulance arrived. My mom performed CPR on me until they did. My heart
stopped again at the hopital. Afterwards, they preformed a craniotomy
removing the top left 1/4 of my skull. I was in a coma for two weeks.

When I woke up, I couldn't do anything. Eat, drink, talk, walk, write,
laugh, think. My left side was paralyzed. Three weeks after I came out of
the coma, my IQ was measured; it had fallen from 118 to 83. I was in the
hospital for 4 months for rehab. During that time they replace the piece of
skull they removed, but my skull will never completely fuse back together.
There are still places on my head where the pieces don't quite come together
(one place they are a figer-wigth apart). It also means that I have a good
chance of dying from a blow any harder than a mild concussion.

Today I have to live with the effects of that accident. They may not be
much physical effects left except for a weaker left side (even though I am
left-handed), a decreased sense of balance, and a left arm that does not
swing unless I tell it too, but there are plenty of mental disabilities I
have to contend with especially learning diabilities that have symtoms like
ADD, dislexia, discalcula (trouble with numbers and time), and anomia
(extreme difficulty remembering words/names). My IQ is almost back up to
where it was before if you compensate for the learning disabilities.

In the hospital, I met a man who had broken his back by stepping off a curb.
Two years afterwards he still could not feed himself, and struggled to
take ten steps. He had no choice what happened to him, but his one main
regret was not doing more with his life when he could.

I definately take more risks and do more "crazy" stuff since the accident; I
know life is fleeting so we should live the fullest we can. But I also
value life. I don't want to take unnecessary risks that might or will
lessen the quality of my life even more in the future.

So go have fun on the trails, but think twice before taking unescessary
risks. Hopefully I'll see some of you out there.

--Kel

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