This concern of Adventure Sports Journal had the inspiring story of Shawn Cheshire, an Army Vet and EMT. This is a free journal out there in numerous locations, my native bagel store had it. In 2009 Shawn obtained a traumatic mind damage whereas treating a combative affected person, and ended up going blind. This led her into extreme despair. In her phrases “I had a choice to make, I could either choose to see the possibilities, make the possibilities, discover the possibilities, or I was going to kill myself”. Fortunately, she selected the previous, and with assist from the Veteran’s Administration Palo Alto Polytrauma Rehabilitation heart, turned herself right into a world-class journey and endurance athlete. She has raced for Team USA within the Paralympics on a tandem bike and likewise runs competitively. Even extra astonishingly, she has skilled herself to experience solo on a motorcycle, and has ridden throughout the US from Oregon to Virginia, in addition to finishing the off-road 2700-mile Tour Divide that follows the Continental Divide Trail from Canada to Mexico. I’ve examine doing the Tour Divide in numerous journey books together with Jill Horner’s Be Brave, Be Strong: A Journey Across the Great Divide. It is a outstanding problem for anybody. But finishing it with out sight approaches unfathomable.
Shawn’s newest plan is to change into the primary girl and solely the second particular person with out sight to climb Mt Everest. But she’s going to proceed on to climb Lhotse, thereby changing into the primary blind particular person to do this back-to-back problem. I’ve little doubt she’s going to accomplish this objective.
Stories like this at all times make me rethink any of my very own limitations and feeble excuses for not being extra energetic.