Live your best life
It's been a while since I wrote a blog post. A lot has happened but I've tried to document my hopefully inspiring, epiphany moments on my instagram profile. It’s attached to this blog but my add is sam_baynes. Go follow :)
I do update my ‘falling upwards’ post regularly as this documents what happened during my coma and recovery that is an ongoing process but I hope that when people read it, they realise that even the most difficult situations can be adapted to how you want your life to be. You just need belief, courage and drive.
So update on my current situation….I have a broken arm….Luckily for me it's my right arm. The arm that suffers from the nerve damage from my accident. Silver lining hey!
What happened….well, for a while now I've been wanting to go away skiing. It didn’t matter where it was, I just wanted to be on a mountain, surrounded by snow, beautiful blue skies and skiing down amazing white pist’s.
The adaptive grand slam team that I now climb with were waiting for potential sponsorship for the Everest summit team and for me, Pumori, a 7100m peak. I had the time agreed and booked off from work for training and the expedition but unfortunately the sponsorship didn't come through so the training week wasn't happening. This left me with a weeks annual leave.
Within a space of 15 minutes of being told the news, researching, I had booked a weeks skiing trip to Bansko in Bulgaria. This was my first 100% solo holiday, 3 years since my accident, 20 months since learning to walk again but I wasn't going to let there be any what ifs in my mind, no regretting not taking a leap and just going for it. I had a week to prepare and then I was off.
Don't get me wrong, putting skis on again, the nerves just hit me, I was so worried but I took myself to the top of the baby slopes and went for it. All the warm feeling came back. I was so in love with my life, loved where I was, I was just beaming with happiness. I made it to the bottom and it's true what they say. It's like riding a bike, you never forget how.
It was a really nice mountain. Not a huge number of slopes and the runs were good for beginners/intermediate skiers/boarders. Borders…...thats where things change.
So I was at the side of a piste and waiting for a clearing to carry on with my descent then suddenly, a boarder went into me. Both skis went flying and I landed quite heavily on my right side. I said a few profanities, took a while for the pain in my wrist to subside but I was ok, I could still move my wrist so I assumed ligament sprain and carried on.
The next day I arranged a hike to another mountain range with a mountain guide so I thought, perfect, I will be able to rest my arm.
Before getting back on the slopes, I taped my arm, tested the movements and was good to go. The pain was fluctuating but I've been through alot worse so it was ignored.
Regardless of my arm, I was having the best time.
Fast forward to getting back to england and back to work Monday morning. Me being an early bird, got to work early to sort out emails and plan my day. A colleague saw that my arm was taped, asked me what happened and strongly suggested I go to a&e and have it x-rayed, better to be safe than sorry right….
“So Sam, you have 2 fractures, wrist and elbow….you have to have it in a plaster cast”. Well that wasn't what I was expecting to hear.
Currently off work. Mindset fluctuating. People telling me that I'm accident prone. That I should stay away from mountains. I understand thats peoples automatic, worried response but that isn't going to happen.
Someone that is accident prone ‘tends to be involved in a greater than average number of accidents’. In my 33 years I’ve had 3. 1 being when I was at uni playing varsity netball, landed wrong and tore my ACL, the main one when I sled 50m off the side of a mountain, ok, that one is a very bad one but I was just unfortunate. It could have happened to anyone and the 3rd being run down by a snowboarder and finding out I had broken my arm.
I like to think of these unfortunate mishaps is evidence that I am just living my life. Doing what I love. Not letting time pass me by. Having amazing experiences and building an awsome bank of memories and whatever happens, allowing that to develop me into a stronger person with a tougher mindset.
Don't let accidents put you off doing what you love. That's what they are, accidents. The 2 definitions of accident put it so clearly;
‘an unfortunate incident that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally, typically resulting in damage or injury’.
‘an event that happens by chance or that is without apparent or deliberate cause’.
I've highlighted the words that have the most meaning;
Unfortunate
Unexpected
Unintentional
Chance
Any part of your life, doing anything at all, something could happen. It might as well happen while you're doing something that you love, right? So don't stop enjoying your life, don’t stop living the best life you can on the worry that something could happen.
I say this often… You only have one life, live it the best you can.
Video I made of the week away. At the time I filmed this, I was unaware that I had broken my arm but still had an amazing trip.