February 17

February 17 —I used to hate this day—the day our lives flipped upside down. The day my back first blew out.

Coincidentally, it happened on vacation in 2016. I had just turned 30 and was training for my first Spartan Race and Tough Mudder. I was in the best shape of my life—physically and mentally. Then, everything changed.

I bent down to lift a suitcase from the floor to the bed, and —my life path was altered. It took everything in me just to get home. My back was stiff as a board, pain radiating down my leg. I honestly thought I just needed a quick adjustment, like that scene in The Incredibles, and I’d be fine.

But six months and thousands of dollars later, I was only starting to feel normal again. I was determined to avoid surgery. My surgeon warned me I was a ‘ticking time bomb,’ that a fusion was inevitable. I didn’t want to accept it. I focused on rebuilding my strength—until it happened again.

I couldn’t walk more than a block without crippling pain shooting down my leg. Chronic pain wears the human soul down. Not a minute passes without feeling it.

So, in 2018, I signed up for a decompression fusion. The nerve pain persisted. A second surgery was needed at a higher segment—finally, success! No more nerve pain. But as I recovered, a new issue emerged: my right hip throbbed with every step. Surgery #3. And finally… I felt like I had my life back.

It was a grind—full of lows, despair, and moments where I thought I’d never escape the bed. I had to change careers, go back to school, and watch life pass me by from a horizontal position.

And yet, this day—the one I remember as vividly as the birth of my kids—has transformed into a day of gratitude. Because it brought me here: traveling the world with my family, fulfilled by my new career as a teacher, in awe of this amazing body and what it has overcome, and endlessly grateful for the people who supported us along the way.

“Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.”

And today, I am reaping the benefits and thankful of the adversity.