Life's Challenges

Life can throw us numerous challenges both good and bad.  Everyone has their own challenges but it is the way we look at them that make them either good or bad.  I have always looked at the glass as half full instead of half empty.  I am sure that this drives some of my friends nuts at times, but I believe it is how I have learned to cope with living with a disease like Multiple Sclerosis.

It was a devastating diagnosis, 3 years into a marriage, a move 16,000 km's away from family and a whole new way of life.  With the support of my husband, family and friends I have been able to move on with life and accomplish things I never thought possible.  I have decided that life is like a game of cards, its not being dealt a good hand but more so the ability to play a poor hand well.  I have certainly learned the art of doing just that.

A lot of people talk about what MS has taken away from them, but I like to talk about what MS has given me.  It has given me the opportunity to become an Ambassador for MS Australia and as most of my family and friends would tell you, I like to talk!  It has given me the opportunity to become an elite athlete, representing Australia in the sport of rowing, with an aim to competing in the Paralympics in London in 2012.  It has given me the opportunity to start a charity event called the 24 Hour Mega Swim, which is now expanding throughout the country, giving people with MS the chance to apply for scholarships to follow a dream.  And last but not least it has given me the opportunity to really start to like myself.

That's not saying that I didn't like myself before, but I believe that being diagnosed with MS has made me not put things off, try new things, look at all that happens around me and enjoy my life.

I honestly believe that the happiest of people in the world do not have the best of all, they simply appreciate what they find on their way and the most exciting moments in our lives come to us when we are living and doing for others.  I believe that the greatest gift we can possibly give to another is a portion of ourselves.