Day 21 Holiday Challenge thread is available for check-in in the forum here.
I will be posting my day accountability/goals in the AM for each day but I will prep and put up each day, 1 day early for those of you that would rather post your goals for the next day in the evening (and for our friends in exotic time zones) 😉
Feel free to comment here as well, but I would love to get Holiday Challenge discussion going in the forum! Thanks!
Go Team!
P.S. Need info about the challenge? Go here!
Broken neck? Yes, you did read that correctly. Of all the things that I am writing about in this Turning 40 series, this would definitely be at the top of a short list of the events in my life that I feel have impacted me the most.
The year was 1986. I had finished my semester at Oak Grove Boarding School and was back to small town living in Ferryville, WI. I was SO ready to get my driver’s license and my father was more than happy to take me out for driving lessons on the country roads in their small Ford Escort.
I had passed my driving class and had been feeling excited and anxious to set up the appointment that would give me the freedom that every teen-age girl longs for! (Assuming that I would pass, of course!)
My dad was taking me out for one last little trip before I took the plunge. We were only a few mile outside of town, on the country road that I had come to know pretty well. Coming to a bend in the road I had gotten off on the shoulder just a bit and the gravel pulled the car in a way that I was not used to. Heading straight for the railing of a bridge, my dad grabbed the wheel to point us in the other direction. We ended up rolling the car and landing upside down near the creek.
Here are the pictures of the poor Ford Escort:
Wow! I never dreamed I would have such a bad car accident before I even had my driver’s license!
I haven’t seen these pictures for several years and going over them again brings back a flood of memories and an amazing feeling of gratitude that things turned out the way that they did.
Looking at that first picture above, you would not think that the driver could be OK considering where the roof of that car is! I call it divine intervention for sure that day that my car seat broke causing it to recline all the way back on impact. Two men had been fishing nearby and when they saw the car they proceeded to get us out and drag us away up the hill a bit (because of leaking gasoline)…another divine moment as they did not know that they were dealing with a girl who had a broken neck.
Yep, here’s the not so pretty result of the car accident injury to me:
I can remember the day very well. I think I had lost consciousness for a bit on impact and the next thing I knew I was screaming for my dad! I needed to be sure that he was alright. My mom came and we were all rushed by ambulance the 40 minutes to the nearest emergency.
At the time, my dad was in shock so there was a lot of worry about him, but we were talking and alive!
Once at the hospital, we were put in different rooms and I remember my mom going back and forth between the two to check in on us. X-rays were taken and I’ll never forget my doctor coming into the room, slapping the X-ray up on the wall and telling me “Well, young lady it looks like you have yourself a broken neck!” Say what?!
When my mom came in and I told her what the doctor had said, she did not believe me at first. I MUST have misunderstood! He looked at the x-ray with us and he actually said that it was somewhat surprising (I call this a miracle – divine intervention #3) 😉 that my spinal cord had not been severed. My 6th vertebrae was overlapping the 7th and decisions would need to be made as to how to proceed.
At that point, I was pretty much immediately put in the traction that you see above. Screws in the head, rotating bed (180 degrees) and all!
My father suffered a fractured sternum and was not admitted to the hospital.
The first few days were rough! I hated that rotating bed! I was on a lot of medication for sure but sleep was not coming too easily. My parents stayed at the hospital and what I remember most during those first few days after the accident was that my dad seemed always to be there. Coffee in hand, he would walk to each side of the bed talking to me. I know that he had a difficult time seeing me like that, but I was so thankful that it was me and not him because I was the one driving.
There was a moment while I was alone and in traction that had played itself out in my faith walk today many times. I believe that it was one of the first times that I really heard the voice of God. Depending on your own faith, you might think me crazy (it’s ok) but I heard God telling me that night that I would be alright, that He had a purpose for my life that did not include being paralyzed. (There had still been some concern of this.)
This voice was so real to me that I rang for my parents and told them and the doctors that I had heard from God. Wow! Over the years, this moment has faded a bit but there have been times during my walk with the Lord now that He has reminded me of that exact moment, so much so that it can bring me to my knees today.
The rest of the story includes the decision to go ahead with surgery (as opposed to continued traction). This meant a bone graft from my hip and the shaving of much of my hair. (Which, by the way, they didn’t bother to tell me – a rude awaking for a young girl!) I would be in a neck brace of one sort or another for the next several months.
During this time, I discovered just how much people cared for me. EVERYONE from my small High School showed up as well as a few people from the boarding school in Fargo. It was right around Easter that I was in the hospital. Here is a picture of me in the room post surgery:
There are SO many things that I learned from this period of my life. I will just end in saying that I do not regret the accident at all. I think it taught me an amazing lesson about appreciating life at such an early age. I pray that I (and you) would never take life for granted, as it really CAN change in an instant.
P.S. I did go on to get my driver’s license after 3 ATTEMPTS! (At least one failure was marked as “drives TOO cautiously!” Go figure!)
Day 20 Holiday Challenge thread is available for check-in in the forum here.
I will be posting my day accountability/goals in the AM for each day but I will prep and put up each day, 1 day early for those of you that would rather post your goals for the next day in the evening (and for our friends in exotic time zones) 😉
Feel free to comment here as well, but I would love to get Holiday Challenge discussion going in the forum! Thanks!
Go Team!
P.S. Need info about the challenge? Go here!
Good boarding high schools do exist in the U.S. and I found a great one to attend in Fargo, ND. (practically one of THE coldest spots in the U.S., I might add) 😉
The is a picture of part of the campus of Oak Grove Lutheran High School:
I attended Oak Grove for the first semester of my sophomore year of high school. Why did I move from my family and life in small town Wisconsin to this cold place far away in North Dakota? This move has everything to do with what I described in my post about the childhood visions that I had for my life as I looked out over the river from the top of the hill in back of my house. At 15, I was starting to recognize limitations to the small town life and I really wanted to start seeing the world.
While traveling to visit my grandparents during a previous winter, (They traveled south in their motor home for the winters and our family would often go to meet up with them for our holiday vacation.) I had mentioned to my Grandfather that I really wanted to attend a new school…that I wanted to be a new kid in school for once. Now mind you, I certainly had friends and wasn’t having any problems at my sweet high school in the Midwest, but I was an adventure seeker…even back then. 😉
My Grandparents said that once I completed my confirmation (something we did within the Lutheran faith) I could come out to join them wherever they happened to be in their travels to live and attend a new school for a period of time. Talk about exciting news! I was not going to forget this idea!
I think my grandparents thought I would forget about the offer, but when the time came I approached them with the reminder. As it turned out, they would not be able to take me with them that particular year so they offered me the option of attending a boarding school for one semester. The conditions were that I had to find a Christian boarding school and the curriculum needed to include some bible study.
I quickly located (with some help) Oak Grove Lutheran School and the wheels were in motion. Yay! I got accepted and discovered that during the only semester that I would be there the 10th grade girls would have P.E. class while the 10th graded boys had the bible class during this time. Because of my situation, they made an exception for me which meant I got to attend the bible class WITH the boys INSTEAD of P.E. Imagine my excitement – score on that count for both reason! LOL
Boarding school taught me a lot of things about myself. I was homesick for sure…probably more so than I had anticipated. I did adjust to dorm life and had an awesome roommate (I recently reconnected with her after all the years via Facebook) and group of great friends to pal around with. I was part of the school choir and participated in the school drama production. I also “fell in love” and was nowhere near ready to leave when the end of the semester came along. 😉
I believe going away to boarding school was the beginning of the recognition that I was a bit of a risk taker. The first glimpses of these traits came with my childhood business endeavors as I went against the grain a bit in terms of the things that my friends were interested in doing at this time in our lives. This would play out many more times throughout my adult life.
I am so grateful to my Grandparents (now deceased) for giving me this opportunity as well as my parents for being so incredibly supportive even though I knew it was a difficult thing to let me live so far from home.
I was spreading my wings! Let the adventure begin!
Day 19 Holiday Challenge thread is available for check-in in the forum here.
I will be posting my day accountability/goals in the AM for each day but I will prep and put up each day, 1 day early for those of you that would rather post your goals for the next day in the evening (and for our friends in exotic time zones) 😉
Feel free to comment here as well, but I would love to get Holiday Challenge discussion going in the forum! Thanks!
Go Team!
P.S. Need info about the challenge? Go here!
I remember my first voice lesson with fondness. My parents had known how much my sisters and I loved to sing, even at an early age, so this is one of the many things they supported us to be able to do. We would drive the 40 minutes to Virterbo College in La Crosse, WI where I would spend an hour of private voice lessons from Sister Arlene. I learned a lot from her during that time.
I grew up being involved with music in one shape or another. My earliest memories are of piano lessons and singing hymns in church. In elementary school I had a short time of guitar lessons and then beginning with junior high school I started playing the saxophone.
Throughout these years I was always in the school choir and also participated in the annual vocal and band contest each year. The picture to the right is a choir picture during my sophomore year at Oak Grove boarding school. (More on that in a later post) I loved to sing and would pretty much do so at any opportunity.
Here I am playing the keyboard with the worship band at Hosanna Celebration Center during many of my years spent in San Francisco, CA. I loved this time of my life.
Praise and Worship music has become my main source of listening enjoyment these days.
I’ve been known to sing a few songs at a karaoke club or two. My favorites to sing in this environment would be country favorites. This also reminds me of the early camping days at the ol Yogi Bear Campground – even then I loved to hop on stage and sing a tune!
Keep singing! 🙂
Day 18 Holiday Challenge thread is available for check-in in the forum here.
I will be posting my day accountability/goals in the AM for each day but I will prep and put up each day, 1 day early for those of you that would rather post your goals for the next day in the evening (and for our friends in exotic time zones) 😉
Feel free to comment here as well, but I would love to get Holiday Challenge discussion going in the forum! Thanks!
Go Team!
P.S. Need info about the challenge? Go here!
This is the picture of what a young entrepreneur looks like! 😉
Its funny when we look back at our childhood and realize how much of who we are as an adult reflects those early days of our youth.
I have never really longed for a typical 8-5 job or career. I always felt that my career choice would be something with a lot of freedom in it.
As I was finishing my final years of High School, my biggest dream was to be a cruise director. (like Julie on the then popular TV show “The Love Boat”) I wanted to travel and see the world.
As a senior, I began exploring my college choice options and my dream of choice was to be an undercover FBI agent. Do you see the trend here? I was most definitely an adventure seeker. I was a young woman that was not thinking of something traditional here.
I went on to school (for the next 10 YEARS – more on this later!) but I digress…
I believe my truest passion in life is to be a successful entrepreneur, owning my own business(es) and shaping this path as I go along.
There were many signs of this desire at a very early age. Meet Paula, the child entrepreneur…
Here are some of the many childhood “businesses” I had going at one time or another:
Remember that I had the fantastic luxury of growing up on the Mississippi River. This meant lots of fisherman and a lot of opportunities for me!
It was at this very boat landing that:
Later in Junior High School, I was the one to win the competition for selling the most magazine subscriptions. I could go on…I’m sure you get the idea. I was driven to have my own business, make money and find childhood success in whatever endeavor I was committed to at the time.
Here is a good description and definition of entrepreneur from Entrepreneur.com
Entrepreneur characteristics include such things as perseverance, passion, vision and the willingness to work hard. Yep, I’d say that describes me to a T, even at a young age!
When you look back at your childhood, what characteristics foretold the career or path you’ve taken as an adult? I’d love it if you’d share that with me…
Day 17 Holiday Challenge thread is available for check-in in the forum here.
I will be posting my day accountability/goals in the AM for each day but I will prep and put up each day, 1 day early for those of you that would rather post your goals for the next day in the evening (and for our friends in exotic time zones) 😉
Feel free to comment here as well, but I would love to get Holiday Challenge discussion going in the forum! Thanks!
Go Team!
P.S. Need info about the challenge? Go here!
I feel that I learned all about work ethics from my teen experience working for this famous fast food restaurant!
Like many teenagers, this is one of my earliest work experiences. Prior to working at McDonald’s, I made my fun money by babysitting all the neighborhood kids in my small town. That was great but I was literally making $1/hr if I was lucky! Good grief! I would go on to use this babysitting experience later in my nanny career.
I actually loved working at McDonald’s. Looking back at these early days I can see a lot of things that I learned from this first “real” job that I think contributed to the strong work ethic that I have today.
Thanks “Golden Arches”, for helping to develop a good work ethic in me!
P.S. Also in later years, McDonald’s would come to haunt me as one of my main sources of weight gain and food comforts. So I did come to have somewhat of a love/hate relationship with this place.
P.S.S. I “think” I have made peace but I still tread lightly when it comes to fast food. 😉
