GR Can Do Hard Things

[Bretimus_v2]

So today I woke up really early for a Saturday. Threw on a pair of basketball shorts, a shirt, and some shoes. I drove a short distance from my house and...I ran in a 10K. Let me just start by saying that I don't like running and I didn't really train for it, but I made a commitment to the kids I volunteer with. Upon arrival they were all very excited...I was something not related to excited, what I was has probably never even met excited at a social engagement. We all lined up and then we jogged.

I can run a 7 min mile pretty effortlessly, but that's one mile. So I crapped out about 2.5 miles into it. My bad leg no longer supports its share of physical activity. So I walked some and then I hit the halfway mark and turned around to finish out the rest. I jogged for about half of the distance while walking the rest. It was rather horrid, but it gave me an opportunity to get out and enjoy the farm fields of Utah. The mountains encompass the valley and you could see the lake a short ways off. Tons of birds were out. It was rather beautiful. So I walked/jogged the rest of it. Hooray me.

But here's the best part upon arriving to the finish line table, the lady congratulated me and gave me my time. Great, I'm old and slow and now I have a quantifiable measurement of it. Yay! That's when she dropped it on me.

Despite being advertised as a 10K, it was actually 12.5K.

Not cool, race dudes. The only time I like to see 25% More is on my food packaging!

But hey! I did something cool today. And it was something I never thought I would do. And I finished in the first third! That is cool as well. Take that 10K walkers!

So GR, have you done anything you didn't want to have to? Have you done anything hard? Have you had to reach down deep and push hard? (phrasing)

Do tell.

 

[Longo_2_guns]

Nothing physical, no. I try to avoid as much physical activity as I can. It wears down your body, and is bad for you. That's why peasants always die so young.

Though last year, I had to take two extra classes even though I was pretty much accepted. That was no fun.

Here's the story. So I had exactly 60 units, the amount you need to transfer, and I got accepted into UC Berkeley for the Spring semester. Cool. So summer goes by, and it's the beginning of September, so classes have already started at community college. I get an email from my admissions guy at 4:30 on a Friday afternoon saying that two of my classes were too similar, and the units from them aren't going to be accepted. Basically, I'm now 3 units short of being allowed admission. Why it took them so long to figure that out I don't know. Anyway, at 5 PM, my admissions guy goes on a two week vacation, so I'm on my own.

So I immediately search the web for a place in California with online classes that hadn't started yet. The only place I find, Lake Tahoe community college. So I immediately sign up for two classes there. I figured it would be smarter to do two, just in case one failed. So while it wasn't ever ridiculous, I did have to devote a semester to two classes when I was supposed to be taking a break. That was no fun.

 

[Bretimus_v2]

I love college admissions. I swear they know what they're doing and just act aloof.

 

[Longo_2_guns]

My favorite part of it is how my admissions guy leaves for two weeks 30 minutes after he sends an email saying "You may not be accepted."

 

[Bretimus_v2]

Haha! And of course his fill-in/back up probably had no idea what to do.

 

[-FCM-]

At the beginning of the year I had a really traumatic experience with my now-ex girlfriend. What she did, how it happened, the scope of it all, completely displaced me. I had spent all my time with her the semester before, taking the train to Boston, sacrificing my grades and losing touch with most of the friends I had made at school since transferring, and the friends that knew me best that I could always count on were back at NYU and were physically far and kind of distant from the situation. I would skip class and go out to parties at night and hook up with random girls I didn't know and then go home alone because I would be too drunk and detached to remember their name, or they would just realize I was drunk and detached, and they would think I was a giant douchebag, which obviously I was at the time. There was one girl, whose name I kept forgetting, who asked someone who turned out to be a mutual friend of ours if I was worth it, and he told her I was, I was just going through a really tough time. We had a really fantastic night together and she was really cool and we got along really well. We said from the beginning that we didn't want anything serious, and we hung out non-stop for a few days and then she ended it and I was fine with it because of a combination of detachment and the fact that it had been a really fun fling and it had seemed to get me back on my feet. It turns out she ended it because she sensed I was really lost.

I still couldn't go to class or the library because I was having panic attacks whenever I was in a room with people that weren't talking to each other. When people talked to me I didn't know where on their face to look and nothing they said seemed real to me and so I didn't remember any of it. One morning I had a particularly horrible encounter with the ex over the phone, during which I realized she was actually a sociopath and specifically did not seem to care if I lived or died. I ate a "special" brownie and walked to a nearby forest and found a place where I couldn't see any people or structures and I laid on my back and realized that I needed help. I decided I would take a mental leave of absence and go to New York and check myself into some sort of low-key self-help center.

Once I made this decision for myself I instantly felt better. I told a couple of friends and they said that based on what happened to me and what it had done to me they thought it was a good idea. I texted that girl (the new one) and asked her if I could come by. I told her that the time I spent with her had been a lot of fun, and that hanging out with her had been the easiest thing I'd done in a long time, and since she represented this sort of hope for finding a connection with someone not at all connected with anything I'd previously known, it just felt right to tell her absolutely everything that happened to me in January. I didn't care about how emasculating it was to sit there and tell her about my girl problems, I just knew I needed to do it, and she sat there and listened, told me she knew I would be okay, gave me a hug, and then I left.

I called my little brother and told him about my plan to take time off and he told me that she (the ex) was the crazy one, and I shouldn't let her make me the crazy one by sending me to a mental institute. He encouraged me to push through, and I realized a part of me had known he was right all along. I think I just needed to do something for myself, and the decision to check myself into a mental facility is what got me on the right path.

In the following week I was placed as the director of a short film, I got the lead role in a play, and I got back together with the new girl. It turns out that night I went to tell her my story she understood me and what happened to me. She had been at all the parties when I was scumbagging it up and had actually had her eye on me the semester before. My grades rose, I have an academic plan, I've become a part of the theater community at my school and am having a blast, and me and the new girl are still together.

This is the first time I've told anyone about all this in a long time, it feels good.

 

[LawnGnome]

I’m currently finishing-up recovering from major reconstructive surgeries on both feet and ankles. I’ve only got one more physical therapy session next week, then I have to get off of painkillers, and then one final visit with my surgeon and I am done!

Basically, a rare birth defect caused some of the bones in my feet to fuse together as I grew which caused my feet to become very crooked. Combined with flat feet also, it caused ligaments and tendons to not be attached properly and impingements in various areas of my feet and ankles. I was seen by local doctors about it when I was 8, but they didn’t really know what was going on and said we would just have to wait and see what happened when I got older.

They were never painful until a few years ago. Walking and even standing got harder and harder until I was almost bedridden. The rural doctors and surgeons around here still couldn’t diagnose or treat it properly, so I eventually made it down to UC Davis Medical Center last year to see the head foot & ankle surgeon. He figured out what was going on (there’s not really a single name for it) and told me I needed surgery. Due to the uncommon nature of my condition I was given a lot of preferential treatment and moved up to the front of their surgery schedule.

Almost a year later I have 5 incisions, a plate, and 5 screws in each foot. They had to sever the connections in those bones; cut, shave, and reposition my heel bones; and cut, lengthen, and reattach ligaments and tendons. I had to spend all together 4 months immobilized in leg casts and 6 months in physical therapy. My feet are now much straighter (one almost perfectly) and I have perfect arches in both feet. The pain is gone and my physical activity is already increasing beyond where I started when my condition first became painful. Getting off of painkillers next month is going to suck (I’ve had to before in the past), but it is my last big hurdle to full recovery. The investment in time and pain has seriously paid off.

I’m thankful for the Game Revolution community for entertaining me & giving me a social outlet this past year while I’ve been mostly stuck at home. Thanks for putting up with all of my drug-addled comments. I’m also thankful that I live in the state of California, which not only covered me but picked up the entire bill. The private insurance companies basically told me to go to hell when I tried to get my surgeries covered, and I know that in most other states in the US I would have been screwed & headed for a wheelchair & welfare. In a couple months I’ll be headed back to work and college instead.

 

[Bretimus_v2]

Wow, FCM, that's a rough year to have to go through. Glad your story had a happy ending.

Dang, LawnGnome, your posting finally makes sense! JK. Glad to hear everything is going well and that you're putting in the post-surgery work.

 

[Wes]

I smoked cigarettes for 10 years and have quit for 3 years now. That was pretty hard. I still get cravings if I am in a bar or a club but they are few and far between.

 

[danielrbischoff]

Despite being advertised as a 10K, it was actually 12.5K.
Not cool, race dudes. The only time I like to see 25% More is on my food packaging!

Haha, so true. Nice job powering through though.

Anyway, at 5 PM, my admissions guy goes on a two week vacation, so I'm on my own.

The bureaucracy of high-learning is never ending. Just wait until it's time to graduate. Be prepared for a never-ending loop of paperwork and complete-know-nothing dickheads who apparently don't want you to graduate at all.

This is the first time I've told anyone about all this in a long time, it feels good.

Talking shit like that out always feels better. Nice job getting your head straight and being willing to take more drastic steps if that's what it came to.

Almost a year later I have 5 incisions, a plate, and 5 screws in each foot.

Wow, that's huge man. So glad to hear that GR was here to help during recovery. Sitting around ass is nice, but only when you CHOOSE to do so. Being stuck there is shitty. Now I understand you're dedicated listening to GRR!

I smoked cigarettes for 10 years

The mental and physical addiction is so tough. My parents quit for years and years. Went to visit them last month and found them both smoking again. Really disappointed. 3 years is nothing to shake a stick at. Keep it up!

 

[danielrbischoff]

And they say we need a multiquote function....

 

[spartan317]

And they say we need a multiquote function....

They also say bring back the black...

My story is a saturday morning special gone fucking kookoo.

Impregnated & Married high school sweet heart in that order. She left and took my boy. Promptly gave him back when he inconvienced her and dragged me through the emotional and spiritual muck so that I would support her in every way possible.

Example: I was paying child support at the same time I was sending her $200 a week for "expenses".

Finally rid myself of her and at the same time discovered that if you live cheap enough then you can survive on very little money. (Not very comfortably as a matter of fact but it can be done)

Spend the next 5 years bouncing around living a fairly unproductive life.
Went to school. burned down a building. Pulled a tree out of the ground with a large pickup. Discovered what homemade napalm can do to a car.

Thanx in no small part to my wife and son I've returned to my previous state of happiness and prosperity.

On a more interesting side note: Through it all GR was a constant. Tempting me with prizes (why not this anymore?) and making me shoot orange juice through both nostrils at a library full of people during finals week. Johnny Liu, Duke, the whole goddamned bunch of them back then.