Thankful Thursday: Unbreakable

Last week, my partner at work called me at 7:45AM. We're not supposed to be "at work" (we both have home offices in order to save on overhead for the company) until 8AM. Typically, if we haven't already arranged what we're both doing that day, we'll give each other a courtesy half hour or so and not call each other until at least 8:30AM. All that considered, it was a little odd that she was calling me so early. That afternoon, we had an initial meeting schedule with a community college a couple counties south of us. She was calling to let me know that we wouldn't be going to that meeting. She had broken her ankle the night before, rolling it after landing on a spotter's foot at, of all things, cheerleading practice, and ended up driving herself to the emergency room, staying there until 1:30AM. Needless to say, she wasn't exactly in the condition to sit in front of a customer, especially since the mass of black and blue at the end of her leg didn't even had a cast on it, just a glorified splint.

This is fresh on my mind because today was the first time that we've worked together since she broke her ankle. We had a walkthrough scheduled with a city government over on the East Coast, and when she showed up at our usual meeting spot to drive over together, she hopped out of her car on one foot, grabbed some crutches out of the back of her car, and limped over, plopping into my passenger's seat with all the epitome of grace and balance. I hope you can sense the sarcasm in that. Print media doesn't convey that terribly well. My first and only thought was, "Well, this should be a fun walkthrough." We stopped at one other place on the way over to cold call, and I got a preview of what we'd be going through later in the day. The speed and efficiency of our little operation ground to the slowest I've ever seen it. It was painful to watch. Thankfully, when we eventually got to our walkthroughs, we were able to minimize the actual walking and do most of our investigation beforehand by interviewing the client.

Through the whole experience, though, it definitely gave me an idea for Thankful Thursday. In my entire life, I've never sprained, strained, fractured, ruptured, torn, pulled, or broken anything on my body. I know this isn't a particularly unique experience; in thinking about it on the way home, I'm almost sure that both of the other people living at my house (my wife and sister) have never experienced any of those traumas either. But in seeing the way that my partner was limited today, in watching the pain that I've seen others go through when they have to deal with injuries, it made me extremely thankful that I've never had to experience anything like that.

Whenever I consider my fortunate history with injuries, it always makes me think of the M. Night Shyamalan movie Unbreakable. In the film, Bruce Willis is in a horrific passenger train accident that kills everyone aboard apart from him. He emerges from the wreckage without a scratch on him. (SPOILER ALERT) In the end, he realizes that he can't be harmed by anything apart from water (drowning). Now, I'm not so arrogant or misguided that I think I'm unbreakable by any means. Sure, I've wanted to be a superhero pretty much my entire life, but I'm not crazy or anything. Could I be? Maybe. Am I? Probably not. Still... for what I haven't had to experience, I'm eternally grateful. Let's just hope it lasts. If it doesn't... I'm sure as hell not gonna schedule any walkthroughs. That's crazy.