Rising Star Adventure

JAN 9--Turning a 'Worst Experience' Positive

Late actor Bob Denver (known for playing Gilligan on the tv show Gilligan's Island ), who would've celebrated his 82nd birthday today, once said "You know, I have no worst experiences." What do you think? When have you had to turn a potential "worst experience" into something positive?

First, I'd like to say, I LOVED Gilligan! Gilligan's Island was great! When I lived in Hawaii, I got to see part of where it was filmed. Interestingly, I just decided to read a bit about it on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilligan's_Island) and I didn't know that it only ran for 3 seasons. Wow! Yet it's so famous! It was actually SUPPOSED to run longer, but it was cancelled at the last minute in place of Gunsmoke which was originally supposed to be cancelled instead. It was actually cancelled while the cast was on vacation. Some of them had also just bought houses in Hawaii because they were doing a 4th season. THAT would have sucked! In Gunsmoke's defense, its ratings went way up in the Gilligan's Island time slot and it ran another 6 seasons.

ANYWAY, back to the prompt...I'm not sure when I've HAD to turn a "worst experience" into something positive, but I know what COULD have been a "worst experience" that I found positive--the rocket attack in Iraq that almost killed me. (Full disclosure: Technically it was a mortar round but most civilians don't know the difference or even what a mortar round is, so I usually just say "rocket.") I was with 2 other people and they were terrified! They completely panicked and didn't do a thing I said. Of the 3 of us, I was the person who should have been the least capable of leading, but as it turned out, I was MOST capable.

This incident, for them, left them with terrible PTSD and a host of other issues. (One was already destined to have PTSD and this only made it a raging case, but the other would have been fine if it weren't for this. She hadn't witnessed any of the death we had.) For me, while I came back with a brain injury and can no longer drive, it was an AMAZING, life defining experience! As I (now) always say, "Nothing makes you feel more alive than almost dying!" We were only 66 ft (20 m) from a 107 mm round. EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) said if it had been a full detonation, we probably wouldn't be here. But thankfully, Iraqis often made their own mortars, bombs, etc. and didn't always do a perfect job. Whew!

Now, this situation caused my already brewing PTSD to explode because my brain was all jacked up from the explosion and I could no longer deal with all the death and dying I was seeing. But the actual experience itself is one of my favorites. It's hard to explain, but despite not being able to drive, I'm SO grateful for that experience! It showed me who I was and what I was capable of. In the face of danger and possible death, I kept a cool head, barked orders (which everyone ignored, but that's not MY fault), and did my best to make sure everyone was safe, despite their state of mind. I'm very proud of that experience!

(Probably those of you who talk to me often are sick of hearing about it. Sorry. I just can't seem to help myself. I did give an abbreviated version though. I could go on for an hour about it! )

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