I’m going to take a risk and wade into waters where I probably shouldn’t, just because your writing is great and you’re so likeable and relateable as a person (which makes me want to offer up food for thought).

It seems like you took one big lesson from your accident but not the other. In other words, you really got that when you take a risk the outcome could really suck. This is true about life and it’s a really tough one. When you learn it, especially on the scale you did, its understandable why you’d become risk-averse.

But there is also a second lesson from your experience: when things go really badly and your life is altered irreparably in ways we never could have fathomed, we figure out how to survive, heal, and, with work and determination, even thrive.

Of course, not always. Sometimes death is a possibility… but it doesn’t seem like that’s what you fear. You fear having to pick up the pieces of a shattered life and imagined future and start again. Well, it would suck big time if you had to do it, but you know from experience that you could. And you would. And you have the support to help you do it.

Take the risks. Otherwise we will reach the end of our lives wondering “what if.”