Pete – What’s the best advice you have for others in your situation?

Hang in there. If you have a new spinal cord injury, hang in there. This is something that’s unknowable, unforeseeable, something that none of us signed up for. None of us planned on this, we never painted a ramp or an accessible van into our personal paintings of our futures. But if you give yourself a chance, you’ll be surprised at what you can do. If somebody had asked me if I could live this way before my injury, I probably would have said “no, DNR – do not resuscitate me.” But I’ve learned that I’m much stronger than I ever thought I was, and that life is much more rewarding than I ever thought it could be. And that if I set my goals to something, I might have to rethink how I’m going to obtain that goal, but I can still do it. You can still obtain your goals, and don’t give yourself a short window of opportunity. And one more thing that I can add to that, if you think you can’t do something, you probably can’t. If you think you can do something, you probably can. So, don’t say “I can’t do this, I can’t do that.” Think to yourself, “how can I do this? How can I do that?”