If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. This phrase became an important quote for Bob after being paralyzed from the waist down. He faced many challenges after the car accident a few years ago. Perseverance helped him overcome these challenges. His First challenge, when discharged from the hospital, was learning to use the wheelchair. In the beginning, he would bump into walls, furniture, and even the handicap railings going down a ramp. Practicing everyday made it possible to hone his skills. Now, he uses it like it was a part of him his whole life. Racing down the hallways, rolling down steps, performing amazing spinning tricks are just a few items on his list of what he can do with his wheelchair. Next, he had to learn things that people take for granted. Getting dressed, climbing in and out of bed are a few of the battles he had to conquer. After falling on the ground too many times, he developed a technique of dragging himself from the chair to the bed when it was time to go to sleep. He used this same technique to roll back and forth on the bed to put his pants on to finish getting dressed. Being able to use the bathroom took a lot of tears and sweat, but he developed upper body strength to be able to transfer from his chair to the toilet. His attitude of never giving up helped him achieve these everyday life challenges. The most important challenge for Bob was getting back into a car and learning to drive again. First he had to retrofit his vehicle to adapt to his disability. Then he really tested his perseverance of climbing in the vehicle and retrieving his wheelchair after he was in. He was able to achieve this with many attempts to perfect this skill. Not being able to use his feet, the brake and acceleration controls were all at the steering column. With some training, the controls became easy for him and he was practically racing on the roads. His ability to overcome his difficulties in life helped him drive again.