People often say that the things that happen to you in life either good or bad doesn’t give you character but it reveals your character.Ive blogged a lot about my life over the past 6 months and if you were to read my blogs in order im pretty sure you would see a change in what I write about and how I write it.Ive discovered many things about myself in that time and also of others in similar sittuations as I was in.To understand your own life sometimes you have to go to a place in your head where it isn’t exactly pleasant but im a beliver in that you can only truly learn about yourself if you do that.Once you understand yourself it then gives you more clarity into understanding others and the choices people make in life or how they handle there life no matter what is thrown there way.This blog is a slight ditractrion from my normal blogs as im going to attempt to relay a story of someone who ive never met,never spoke to and never heard of until this week when I came across a story online that stopped me in my tracks as I paused for more than just a thought.This is the story of a young man called Austin Hatch.
Austin is a young man who attends Loyola High School in Los Angeles,he plays on the school Basketball team and last week he scored his forst basket in over 3 years.Now that might not sound to dramatic but until you have heard his story judgment needs to be withheld.Austin is a survivor of two deadly plane crashes and has practiced with Loyola since moving from Indiana to Los Angeles in August, but he hadn’t felt comfortable playing in a game until Wednesday night’s league opener.When he made that basket the whole bench was on the floor. The refs had no choice to call a tech for game interruption, but it was worth it. It was unbridled joy. There were parents weeping in the stands. It was an unbelievable moment.Such jubilation is typically reserved for game-winning buzzer beaters, but anyone familiar with Hatch’s comeback story surely understood Loyola’s heartfelt reaction.
Eight years after he and his dad walked away from a 2003 crash that killed his mother, 11-year-old sister and five-year-old brother, Hatch had to cope with another eerily similar tragedy. His dad was flying the family between its Indiana home and a Michigan summer house in June 2011 when the small, single-engine plane plummeted nose-first into a garage along a residential street north of Charlevoix Municipal Airport, killing Hatch’s father and stepmother and critically injuring him.
In addition to sustaining severe head trauma, a punctured lung, fractured ribs and a broken collarbone, Hatch also spent eight weeks in a coma as a result of the swelling in his brain. Doctors were still skeptical he’d ever play basketball again even after he emerged from the coma and gradually regained the ability to talk and walk.
Motivated by the goal of proving his doctors wrong and fulfilling his dream of fulfilling the commitment to Michigan he had made before the second crash, Hatch worked every day with returning to basketball in mind. Everything that was once routine for him became a milestone, from re-learning how to catch a ball or balance on one foot in the weeks after he left the hospital to practicing with his former high school team in Fort Wayne, Ind. in a limited capacity during the 2012-13 season.
Hatch could have played in his first game in Fort Wayne last February when doctors first cleared him to go full speed, but he vetoed the idea since he didn’t feel he had sufficient strength, speed or coordination to be worthy of playing time. told my therapists, my doctors and my coach, ‘I’m not going to be an asset to my team,'” Hatch said in a press conference in November. “I don’t want to be put in a game just because of who I am and what I’ve been through. If I’m not going to help the team win basketball games, I don’t deserve to be out there.”
Even after enrolling at Loyola in August after moving from Indiana to his uncle’s home in Pasadena, Hatch still didn’t want to rush his return to game action. He waited until Loyola’s league opener 14 games into the season before assuring Adams he was ready to make his debut.
The effort was worth it, judging by the response of Hatch’s teammates to his first basket.
In five months at Loyola, Hatch has had a profound impact on his new teammates and coaches.
They’ve celebrated with him when flashes of his former athleticism return during practice. They’ve helped him through tough days when his recovery plateaus or his mind isn’t as razor sharp. And they’ve gained perspective from him that there is stuff more important than basketball.
Pretty profound stuff I think you would agree.So after reading his story and then jumpng to follow him on Twitter my mind took over and started to think about my own Mortality and the way I live my life and the affects it has on others.I know people say that we should live our lives everyday as if it was our last but in reality it doesn’t work like that.We can definatly all try our best everyday but you certainly don’t want to think it will be your last.I have no idea how Austin could begin to overcome something like that and having never realy ever experienced anything remotely like that it is a hard concept for me.I talk alot about changing my life and moving forward with it but how an earth can anyone overcome something like that.No matter what you belive in wether it be religion,fate,circumstance it would test your faith to the limit.Is that why I take my life more seriously now,is that why I so badly want to make amends and why I want to embrace change because of the loss we can all easily have.I know I want as much time as I can get in this life but maybe its not upto me,maybe its already written for me and for all of us.Even if that’s not the case shouldn’t we all do our best to make a difference for good in peoples and our own lifes,shouldnt we grab every opportunity no matter how small or how big that life gives us.Those are questions I can only answer for myself.I know im more open to thoughts and ideas nowadays then I ever was and as the Buddhist teacher Pema Chodron says, “The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new.”Change is SO hard because it feels like the new reality doesn’t quite fit. It’s like when you wear a new pair of shoes. For a while you get blisters and feel awful and you miss your old shoes, and then before long you get used to the new shoes and it feels like you’ve been wearing them all your life. Change is the same thing. It’s like it doesn’t fit, and you need to give yourself time to walk around in the new reality and get used to it. Whether its a new pair of shoes, a new baby, an empty nest, a lost love or a big move, change requires a little patience and a lot of perspective.I suppose that’s what life is all about realy but one thing I have came to discover about my life is that it can only be understood backwards, but must be lived forwards.You are ALWAYS who and where you need to be in each moment, becoming exactly what the future demands of you. You don’t have to know the future and you don’t have to be the person who can already manage the future. Just manage now. You have all that you need for now. See your life and change from that hopeful perspective.If you look at your life as a whole, you can see the thread of growth and meaning through ALL of it. Then a general feeling of gratitude for who you have become can fill in the holes from the past.Don’t be thankful for hard times. Be real. Call them what they were, or are. Be grateful for who you’re becoming. Be grateful for the gift of being able to get back up when you’ve fallen down. Be grateful for your life as a whole, and stop judging it piece by piece.
Ok so im sorry if that blog was a bit deep but I just thought it was something I wanted to share.Normally I end my blog with a saying or a speech or a song I like but this blog will end will something from Austin himself,a simple statement and the inspiration of this blogs title.
Regular people do Regular things.
Decide to be UNCOMMON
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