My favourite quote is: “You never really know what you can really do until you stand up and decide to try!”
Today, I have the day to myself to thoroughly reflect on my task at hand. I have been asked by the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada to become a correspondent of sorts; to maintain a “blog,” or internet diary, of my daily life, and to document my thoughts, feelings and experiences, while trying to live a full and rewarding life with MS.
To be honest, I almost said no.
It has taken me some time to get a handle on living with a chronic and debilitating illness like multiple sclerosis. I was very young when I was first diagnosed, a mere 22 years young, and it has taken me a long time to become the confident man I am today. There have been many ups and downs, but through it all, I remained optimistic, and have always tried to share that sense of hope and optimism with those around me.
Of late, though, my life has become very... complicated, and in many ways. My feeling was that I needed to focus on my own challenges before I could write about things like “hope” and “optimism.” Frankly, with the difficulties I was now coping with, I felt that I would be seen as hypocritical if people knew the truth. But then I realized that these issues I am currently faced with are ones faced by all people directly affected by MS, and that those individuals would likely be as confused, or angry, or even as scared, as I sometimes felt. Thus, I came to see this invitation as a rare opportunity; a means to show people the way towards hope, while I, myself, am discovering it at the same time.
The wisest words I ever heard spoken were by my father, who said “if you want people to follow your lead, you have to lead by example.” I am therefore deciding to share my life with all of you, and to be as honest and forthright as I can, that I may be that example, and show people that life with MS is not the end, but merely the beginning of a whole new life, one that can be every bit as fulfilling and satisfying as anything they’ve experienced so far - and possibly even more so.
I hope you’ll follow my story as I make my way through this journey called “life.” Along the way, you’ll be guaranteed to experience heartache, humour, tragedy, and triumph (and hopefully a little bit of subversiveness, if I can sneak it in).
Maybe we should sing a song along the way...“Hi Ho, hi ho, it’s off to work we go...”
Um, no. Okay, howzabout...“Don’t forget your second wind... sooner or later you’ll feel that momentum kick in!”
Yeah, I like that one a lot better.
Of course, there is always the cover of Frank Sinatra’s “I Did it My Way” by a fairly infamous UK Punk Rock band, but I say we start off the “funny” small, and work our way up slowly.
Talk to you all soon.
Irreverently Yours,
Mike, who is off to a running start