Just a few months from obtaining my GED at 22 years old and heading to a junior college, possibly to play basketball and finally get my name out there as the good ball player i knew and thought i was. Unfortunately I ended up in a forklift accident at work my first day on the job due to being switched to an outdated defective 360 steering finger style forklift, and being improperly trained on that machine, to give you a visual I had to start the forklift with a box cutter so you can only imagine how much worse it was and the trainer claimed it was safe and ok when we did a forklift check list for maintenance purposes. I was skeptical and tempted to leave at this point but i didn’t because I’ve walked out of many jobs i didn’t like or didn’t see myself working at long term before and was scolded for doing so at times. I was young so i didn’t think much of it until i had my first two kids(Irish twins) which is why I stayed this very time that changed my life entirely. While i was doing an order with the forklift on my way to the bay to drop the completed order off, the forklift started to drift toward the steel beam that holds up the warehouse foundation as i was driving it. Me being improperly trained on the 360 finger style forklifts, I panicked a little after trying to fix my line of drive so i don’t hit the beam but that did not working. So as I’m still heading toward this thick steel beam I took my foot off a petal that was suppose to shut the forklift off completely and immediately, unknowingly leaving my foot exposed as I was approaching about 5-8ft away from the beam (it’s called Dead mans petal i believe) but the forklift did not stop it kept going smashing, crushing and almost severing my exposed foot and lower leg. The forklift completely snapped the lower part of my tibia and fibula bone right below my left calf muscle, on May 12, 2015 a day I’ll never between 3-4pm. Unfortunately I can’t remember exactly what time cause that time is still a blur for me. The accident caused me to make the decision to amputate my foot instead of trying to revive a dead foot with 20 surgeries over the span of 24 months. I was working at a warehouse for a temp agency in my hometown Aurora, IL. Sadly the worse possible thing happened that day, and it changed the entirety of my life and point of view. I was angry, depressed, sad, and confused for a very long time. Thoughts of maybe life would be better if i just called it quits but the thought of leaving my kids alone in this world before i can properly guide them and leaving them a legacy to build on scares me even more than my thoughts of wanting it all to just end. I did and at times still do wonder why, why me? and wonder what my life could’ve been if this never happened. These conflicting feelings led to these thoughts of feeling insignificant and feeling inadequate. So in retrospect to combat these feelings i was mentally fighting every second of the day I came up with “Get Active and Be Great” as a motivational slogan that has become the meaning behind my upcoming clothing line “Raww Gear.”
Comments