Yesterday, I saw a man that I had met only once before. He came up to me and said “Dina, you are my hero.” Looking quite perplexed, I asked him what he was referring to. He said that he had read all about me?!?! Ummm…..what on earth!!…..should I be scared?!
It took me a minute to realize what he meant. He said that he had read the Toronto Star articles about me and couldn’t believe my journey and how positive I was. My fear that someone had “read all about me” quickly shifted to a bashful “oh yeah….thanks” He went on to praise my “courageous attitude”, “positive outlook” and that I must be an extremely motivated person.
While I have heard many comments like these over the past two years, it was what he said next that completely changed my previous way of handling any comments. He told me his sister was about to start chemotherapy and would really benefit from speaking to someone like me. He mentioned that she could use someone with my positive energy to help her deal with the challenges she was currently facing and if I would just call her to talk. (Which I did)
Over the few years since the stroke, I have been very quick to brush off and dismiss any comment – all of which have been positive. But, I didn’t care – I just wanted to distance myself from being a stroke survivor. The stroke was the past – it didn’t matter, I didn’t want it to be a part of me in any way. The stroke and me were completely separate.
My typical response to any sort of praise was one (or a combination of) any of the following phrases – “Sh** happens, you just deal with it,” “Oh I was just lucky,” “Anybody would have done the same thing”. My response would quickly be followed with a desperate attempt by me to distract the person/group of people talking about me by completely shifting the conversation to anything but me!
I never understood what the fuss was about and was always quite uncomfortable with any attention. It took me up until yesterday (2.5 years after the stroke!!) to truly believe that maybe….just maybe, I was different, maybe it wasn’t just luck and maybe I did take on my challenge in a way that not everyone would.
It finally (FINALLY!!) struck me – I was a different person after the stroke and that was okay. I finally acknowledged that having the stroke had actually turned me into a BETTER person. I had the ability to motivate and help others through THEIR challenges!
This 5 minute conversation had my mind spinning – I walked out of the room and couldn’t stop thinking – I’m going to dedicate my life to empowering, motivating and inspiring others to take on any challenge they face. I had NO clue how I would start – but the seed was planted!