Mastering the Art of Success
The same thing with my transplant—when it came time for my
transplant surgery, my dad came with me. My mom stayed home with
three of my brothers, so it split up our family for a year. My parents
were both teachers, so they were both off during the summertime.
They both came to stay with me, so my brothers were without parents
for two or three months. They were all teenagers and in their early
twenties, so they were actually in some ways really quite happy with
th at because they got the run of the house for a couple months. But the
truth of the matter is, my health has not only disrupted my life but
th eirs also. They have been very kind to never make me feel guilty
about that.
The greatest gift they gave me was the belief that nothing was
impossible—I could do anything I wanted to do and my health and size
and all of those things didn’t have to stop me from what I wanted to
do. Many parents with young, ill children r eact by protecting them,
putting them in a bubble, and trying to prevent them from having any
fu rther problems to deal with. They don’t want them to get hurt. I was
fo rtunate that my parents let me run and fall down and they let me
play sports as much as I was physically able t o. They allowed me to push
myself, within reason, even though it was maybe not the safest thing to
do all the time. Thanks to them, I had a sense of autonomy and
independence that I otherwise wouldn’t have had, and it served me so
well in the rest of my life. I thank them for their strength in doing that
because I’m sure it was not easy to watch this fragile child with a heart
problem running on a soccer field not knowing if he might collapse.
Certainly they never went against doctor’s orders, but they took risks
th at others might not have taken, which made a big difference in my
lif e.