David Stinchcomb
Memoirs Essay

The day my life changed forever occurred May 3 2010. I learned the hard way on this day that you can’t burn the candle at both ends without they’re being some kind of repercussion. After working day and night for three days my body finally gave in and crashed, literally. While driving home from work, after a long rainy night on newly paved roads, I lost control of my car. My car spun sideways and struck a pickup truck coming the opposite direction. Both vehicles were totaled and I’m amazed that everyone walked away from the hospital later that day with only minor injuries, or so I thought. I later found out while at the hospital that I tore the ligaments in my right knee and that it would require surgery to correct. Here is where the life changing part begins, I worked for a Miller Lite Distributor and loaded keg trucks by hand. Now I was going to need to find another career path since manhandling kegs was no longer an option since I was unable to support my own weight. This meant that I was going to need to occupy my currently available down time and what better way than furthering my education.
Seeing that I was no longer able to perform my job and that this accident didn’t happen while at work I was only given a small window to return to work. This directly contradicted the doctor’s orders of physical therapy three days a week for one year and no prolonged standing. I had complete ACL and PCL replacement surgery; basically I had most of the ligaments in my knee replaced. This recovery period was long and hard. Mainly because I’m not someone who takes any pain medicine stronger that Alieve or Motrin. After being on crutches for a week after my surgery it was time to take my stitches out. Apparently my body didn’t want a foreign object place in my knee and tried to reject the screw that was inserted during the surgery twice. After what seemed like an eternity I was able to walk around again and start to regain full mobility in my knee.
The next thing that took precedent after surgery recovery was that I needed to find a new way to support my self and family. My first though went back to when I was in high school and took Computer Programing for the first time. Like someone learning a new language and getting it fairly easy, Computer Programming just made sense to me. I was able to read ones and zeros like others are able to ready their favorite novel. Even though going to college seemed like the right path to take I was not in a position to take two or four years to dedicate the time needed to pursue a degree. Since I wanted to enter the IT career field and I already had plenty of experience doing freelance computer repairs and being my family and friends go to IT guy I decided to get certified. I currently hold four certifications and plan on growing that for as long as I can.
Now since I had a plan and the beginnings of the training needed to enter the IT field, I started reaching out to recruiters. It was slow to start but I started working Helpdesk and PC refresh positions. The first thing I learned while trying to make a living is this business is that unless your willing to work short term contract positions you may go long periods of time without a job. This itself is like a double-edged sword because HR departments look for longevity and usually don’t understand the frequent turnaround associated with short-term positions. Fast-forward a few years and here I am pursuing my degree as originally planned and working towards that goal I set so many years ago.
In conclusion, I feel that ultimately you cant out run your dreams. No matter what life throws at you, sometimes the worst situations are what you need to realign your path. Call it faith, fate, or God’s plan I believe we are all destined for a greater purpose. Those dreams we had as children are clues to push us toward that destiny. Some of us are a little more stubborn than others and needs a swift kick in the rear-end or a car accident to remind us you cant fight fate.