Blessed With Opportuities

As many of you know, I have not been blessed with the fairy tale life. Truth is, nobody gets the fairy tale life. What I have been blessed with is a life overflowing with opportunity. It may not be a fairy tale but it is my story.

I was born into a life full of opportunity.

 My mother was widowed at a young age and made the decision to focus the rest of her life on raising her 3 children. Most see this as a disadvantage. I see this as an opportunity to learn from. By watching my mother work day in and day out to support her family, I learned to have a strong work ethic, to always have a back up plan and to never back down. Being raised not only by my mother but my grandmother, my uncle and my second family across the street, I learned that it truly does take a village to make it in this life and that it is not only acceptable but necessary at times to lean into others for support and to build a community around you. I may have not grown up in the traditional home but the trials and tribulations of my childhood provided avenues of growth and strength that I may otherwise not possess today.

This life, this life of mine is bounding with opportunity.

In my teenage years, I was diagnosed with a debilitating auto immune disease, one that left some permanent deficits, one that was excruciating at times. Some individuals in my position threw in the towel, letting the disease consume them and their life. I chose to persevere, overcome and adapt. Yes, I was in pain. There were days when the disease had such a hold on me and my body that I could not complete simple tasks such as washing my own hair due to pain and limited mobility. There were days that opening a door without help was the greatest achievement in the world, for the mere twisting motion of my wrist would drop me to my knees in pain. I did not know it during the time, but this was life giving me another opportunity to learn great lessons. I overcame. I adapted. I kept going. I found other ways to continue playing the high school sports that I loved. Working with coaches, I would immobilize certain joints for the flexing of the joints is what was most painful. It was in these days that I learned that pain will not kill me. I learned to push past the pain in efforts not to give up (this will come to bite me in the ass later). This was my life and I would not sit on the side lines because of a disease. This was an opportunity to get stronger mentally and physically. This was an opportunity to dive so deep into the world of nutrition and the effects of diet on auto immune diseases. This disease of mine was never destined to be a road block, merely a detour.

My cup overflows with opportunity.

The 10 years I have spent as a Trauma and Flight Nurse have, at times, been difficult emotionally. I have been with thousands of individuals on the worst day of their lives. I have held the hands of others while expressing my sincere condolences after breaking the news that we were unable to save their loved one. I have told others that they were going to die soon and there was nothing we could do to avoid it. I have cried in the shower after shifts out of frustration for our society - witnessing some of the worst gang violence around. I have stayed with infants that we could not successfully resuscitate that had no family present. I have stared death in the face for 10 years. I have gone through cycles of hardening, becoming very jaded and on the other side, I have become empathetic, understanding, sensitive yet strong. Looking back, those very difficult shifts were just lessons in disguise. Some were great opportunities to progress my clinical skills as a nurse, others were opportunities to perfect my communication skills, and others still were opportunities to grow personally, providing me with experiences that I take with me every day of my life.

Behind every door of my journey, lies opportunity.

I won't hash this out too much here as I have written about this a lot...feel free to go back if you want more. I fell in love with an amazing man, got married, and made life a grand adventure. On one of our adventures together, he slipped falling down a glacier and unfortunately he did not survive his injuries. I have chosen not to be bitter about this for Tommy's love was the grandest of opportunities. An opportunity to learn to love, to learn to lower the walls around my heart, to experience a loving and caring partner. And in his death, I have learned to gracefully make my way through this life, navigating the road of grief. His death has taught me so much about life. Life is short. One second can change everything. His death has provided me with the opportunity to truly live. I am more present. I don't let experiences pass me by. I let go of the things that don't bring me joy or value in this life. I feverishly chase the things that do bring me joy and add value to my life. Speaking of chasing things that bring me joy, I recently had a friend ask me what was stopping me from starting a business that I have been dreaming about for years. Fear. Fear was the number one reason. I was fearful of jumping into this business venture alone, for it was one that Tommy and I dreamed about...together. My friend responded by gently telling me that using Tommy's death as an excuse was not acceptable and that if Tommy knew that, everyone knows he wouldn't be okay with that. The next day I jumped all in to starting my business. Although, he is not here to lend a helping hand or to jump in with me, he is still a guiding force. Tommy's life, his love and his death have been one humongous opportunity for me. Opportunity to grow, to learn grace, to be humbled and remain humble, to be ever present, to remind me to continue to push and challenge myself, to practice gratitude, to thoroughly enjoy the small things in life, but most importantly it has been an opportunity to learn to love deeply and passionately for the rest of my days.

Like I said, my life has been blessed with many a great opportunities.

When life seems to be getting you down, pause for a moment and examine what opportunities lay in front of you. And just remember, you may not see the lesson until you look back upon it but in every challenge there is also a potential for some sort of growth. From injuries to losing a loved one, the opportunity is there, my friends.

Much love,

Alison Fountain