A post for my hero.
Eep! It’s been a while! I’ve been doing a bunch of traveling and trying to play catch up in between. Just got back from a wonderful trip to Mexico City with the salsa fam! We had a great performance and a blast exploring a new city together. Mexico gave me a little going away present 💩 💝, so I’ve been doing lots of laying on the couch and re-reading Harry Potter in between keeping up with adulting. Anyway! Now I’m back! And I want to tell you about one of my best friends. She’s in the hospital in another country with a pulmonary embolism (blood clot in her lung...don’t worry, I had to google, too) and she needs some extra love today. She’s ok right now, but needs some more positive energy to help her through the last bit of healing to get her home, so I figured I’d tell another one of her stories here. This story is one of my favorites...
She’s my oldest friend. Technically, we’ve been friends since we were 6. I moved to VT from PA in a snowstorm right after Christmas and the neighbors just down our dirt road came over to invite us to their New Years’ party. My parents aren’t really the partying type (I don’t ever remember going to another New Years get together), but, for whatever reason, we went to this one. It was a small gathering- mostly adults. There was one little girl upstairs in the little loft of the log cabin, so I went up to play with her. She was making a latch hook pillow with a fish on it. I had never seen latch hook before, so she taught me, and we spent hours laughing and pillow making up in that little loft. It was another 6 years before our paths crossed again. I was in 6th grade, getting ready to visit a new school for 7th grade. A couple days before the visit, my dad asked if I remembered the girl with the latch hook pillow. I said OF COURSE! He told me she was slated to visit the new school the same day I was! He remembered her last name from talking with her dad at the party and put two and two together. Fast forward to both of us deciding to go to the new school and being best friends all the way through middle and high school. We had our ups and downs, but we were apparently slated to be best friends, and it was out of our control. We were stuck together.
One day when I was in college, I got a call from her telling me she had been in a terrible car accident while studying abroad in Ecuador. She had broken her pelvis in 3 places and the doctors were scared she wouldn’t walk again. Now, mind you, this lady is one of the best athletes I’ve ever met, so her not walking again did not compute in my mind. Or hers. She took an air ambulance home and was on bed rest for a while, but, of course she did walk again. The doctors were very happy with her progress, but they told her she’d never run again. I spent that whole summer with her, walking and (ironically) salsa dancing. Doing anything to keep her body moving and working towards having full mobility again. It was so hard watching her struggle. She was always the stronger one. She always had a stronger body and mind than I did...it was so strange seeing her like this. And then one day, FINALLY, she ran. We were both crying. I was so proud of her and she was so, so happy. After watching her conquer the impossible, I knew she could do ANYTHING, and if she could do it, I could do it, too. Her willpower is so, so positive and strong, and it’s infectious. Now she works for Reebok corporate and teaches bomb ass fitness classes- inspiring adults and kids to be the best they can be. Because, if she can run when they said she would never walk again, we can do anything. And, because she’s always been good at defying the odds, I know she’ll be fine this time, too. According to her, and me, there’s no other option. This world isn’t done with her yet. So, remember. You can do ANYTHING you set your mind to. And, no matter what you’re struggling with...you’ll always come out stronger in the end. 💪🏼💜💫