The Day My Life Changed



I often talk about this because it was the most influential event of my life I can remember

In April of 2008 I had a car accident as I was leaving work one Friday evening. I had been through this experience years previously with Sandy when a car ran a light and T-boned us. But this time would be a significant turning point in my life.

For the following three months I went through physiotherapy to treat torn muscles between the ribs in my back. Physically I healed, but psychologically I was distraught. I was incredibly emotional, and felt I couldn’t revert back to who I had been. For the first time in years I was full of self-doubt and uncertainty. Eventually, athough I regained my self-confidence I began to feel a void, like my life lacked purpose. This feeling and my search to find the reason behind it was to last several months. Shortly before spring of 2009 I realized I needed to take the focus off myself and put it on others. Admittedly I've always had somewhat of a 'hero complex'; I get a lot from giving of myself (I hope this doesn't sound too self-serving). I believed this was the answer I was searching for.

At the time of my accident I had a friend at work who was sending daily quotations to some of us. I remembered how these quotes had often helped me keep things in perspective, and thought it would be a good way to reach out to people. She had since left but I decided to start it up again, and within a few weeks my e-mail distribution list had grown to over 250 people in Canada, Australia, the US, Trinidad and the UK. It was getting out of hand so I began looking for other options, and in March of 2009 “Life In Quotations” was born.
Gradually I began to feature my own writing in the form of quotations, poetry and short stories. As I wrote I started to get a lot more feedback and developed a following. This following turned to friendships, some of which have grown very close. I began to realize I could continue to be a shoulder to others- much more comfortably, in the case of my female friends, as any fear of romantic 'tension' have been removed. These relationships and my return to writing have lead me to write my first book, which I talk about in another section of this header.

The decision I made that day, that one split-second created a ripple whose effects have completely changed my life, and have resonated every day since.