Peter O'connel Day!

Today, we had the chance to meet our Peter O'connel [not his real name =) ], a tetraplegic/quadraplegic (paralysed in body and legs, and lost some functions in his hands) who suffered a spinal cord injury during a car accident nearly 19 years ago. During the lecture, we were given insight into the difficulties a quadraplegic faces in his daily life, which we all so often take for granted.

To get out of bed, he has to roll to the bedside, grip the handles of his wheelchair carefully, and whilst maintaining his balance, pull himself over to the chair. It takes them about 6 to 9 months just to master how to pull themselves into and out of their wheelchairs when they need to transfer themselves into a car or onto a bed. Clearing his bowels takes him a few hours in the morning (he commonly wakes up at 4am to prepare for his day), and emptying his bladder involves regular self-catheterization throughout the day. At the start of his rehabilitation 19 years ago, he needed help in almost all daily activities, be it cleaning, moving or eating, and took many months to learn to do them independently. He also needed to install modifications into his house (especially bathroom). Luckily, his parents were highly supportive of him, both emotionally and financially. (He had a paralysed friend whose mother disowned because of his disability!! So mean!!)

Sometimes, this just makes us feel much more blessed with what we have, and make us realise that we actually take so many things for granted. Just waking up, washing up and eating breakfast is a real feat for a disabled person, whereas it's just another daily routine for us.

Sometimes, we get so caught up in comparing ourselves to others, feeling so jealous and unhappy that we're not leading the happening, cool lives that they lead, watching them party every other weekend! We don't notice that there are miracles occuring around us, even when we perform routine tasks like waking up and walking to the toilet.

Ask the quadraplegic how it feels to get to the bathroom every morning,
Ask the blind man when was the last time he saw the rainbow,
Ask the deaf man when was the last time he heard Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.

Sometimes, we are so greedy, we want to have everything. To us, the grass is so much greener on the other side, that we lose sight of the lush vegetation on our side of the meadow.

Sometimes, we long so much for that elusive grass, that we forget to water our own grass, and they wither and die, leaving our once beautiful meadow all lifeless and barren.

Sometimes we are so obsessed with our problems, that we fail to see how much the people around us are suffering. We just think life is so unfair to us, and wonder why bad things happen to us, when those bad things are just anthills, compared to the mountains of challenges life presents some other people with.

I truly admire Peter O'connel.