life changing experience

There are times when things that happen in life, changes us completely. We call them as life changing experiences. It can be a huge thing, like an accident or emotional shock. As far as I believe, any experience in the life is called a life changing experience. It may not be so big that it shakes you off completely, but none the less it is an experience.

I decided to take a day off from my work. No special occassion though, just that boss was out of town :). So since it was a holiday for me, I decided to sleep till I wanted to and relax a bit. By the time I woke up, it was 10 AM. When I got down for breakfast, I realized that I was out of eggs. So that afternoon, I made a plan to do some shopping. It would be a while now, since the last time I actually went out for shopping. The last time I remembered, I was shopping out around 11 of night, buying groceries and stuff which my maid happened to give me. I can still remember that morning when she gave me a long list of things to buy saying, "you get all these or else I wont be able to do anything in this house". (She was right though. I was out of food, cerals, laundry liquiod, milk, eggs etc)

As a bachloer, this is one thing which you would always hate..... shopping for groceries. Had it been shopping for electronics or casual wears, I would be hurrying down the road to get my hands on. So here, I was standing in front of a super store, with the list of things I need to buy.

The super store I usually go is huge. Much like a walmart. They have everything. You name it, they have it. This is one thing I always hate. With so many choices to go for, I end up spending more time buying the product. My 1st experience in super store went for 3 hrs. Yes, thats right... 3 hrs of shopping for just 7 items. You can see me going through each and every product trying to figure out whats best. Starting from its contents to narrowing down to price.

This experience has left me with how to deal it in future. Now, all I take is 1 hr to buy 20+ items. Hence, I save on time so it gets classified as life changing experience... :) Ofcourse, when asked about my life changing experience, this would not be the one I will remember. Normally, life changinge experiences will leave a deep mark in your memory.

I can still remember the rainy day 2 years ago. I was driving down to home in city after spending time with my family in nearby town. (My parents decided never to leave the town in which they spent 30 years of their lives and so they prefered to live it that way. So I made a point to visit them when I can. Ofcourse, this visit of mine was after 7 months.) It was a cloudy day when I left and just as I left the interstate, it stated raining heavily. I was barely able to see what was ahead of me. I was now in my city, but rain made it impossible to locate the directions. Good thing for me, I had this gps installed who was guiding me on the way. It was afternoon time, but it was pitch dark with rain poring all over, giving you impression that you are in middle of late evening of winter. I stopped at a regular intersection waiting for my signal. As the light turned green, I drove my car, when suddenly out of nowhere a speeding car from opposite lane, lost the control and came in front of me for a head on collision. The last thing I remember arethe cars flash lights blinding my eyes as they head towards me. After which all went blank.

There is this nice mechanism of ones brain to shut himself down when such accidents happen. (Though I am not sure why it is that way, especially when you needed your brain to work faster in an attempt to get out of this situation.) The last thing I remember, was a bunch of guys pulling me out of my car and a voice of lady calling 911 for assistance.

The time when I regain consicousness, I found myself in bed of hospital with bandages all around. I was told by doctors that I was knocked out for 2 days and had suffered a few fractures on my legs apart from brusis on the body. So in short, it was 3 months of recovery time for me.

The time I spent in hospital was life changing experience for me. My friends visited me every weekend spending the whole day with me, my family was everyday by my side and from what I knew, Patricia was most concerned member apart from my family. My boss also paid visits every month, making sure how I was recovering. I didnt knew he had different plans in his mind when one day he came up to me and said

"Here you go JD. Your office laptop and a few notes. All this just for you ".

I look at him as if I was missing something out there and hoping it would be a bunch of flowers or fruits or choclates rather than my work laptop.

"The doctor said, you are absolutely fine. The only recovery left out to do are your legs fracture. Other than that, you can work. Your brain in intact and everything inside it." - I can see that gleen look in his eyes. He was not evil, it was just his way of missing me in the office.

"Thanks boss. How thoughtful."

So a month and half later, I was working again.

In these 3 months, there were a few instances when I realized how much people love me. They cared for me beyond my immagination. These are somethings which I would have never thought or imagined if accident would not have happened.

I also happened to learn gitar while in hospital. (Something which I always wanted to learn since a long time but could not find time to do so.)

Apart from this, my hard worked project did not finish on time due to my accident and so I ended up working on another project. This hurted me the most, since all my 7 months of hard work went down the drain. It was the time when I cursed god for not been good with me. What boss gave me was a new assignment to work on. A whole new project...

A year later, my new project fetched company huge profits and I was the star of the show. This made me realize as to how things work for us. If that accident would not have happened, I would still be working on the project which might not have earned anything close to this new project of mine. I did felt bad when I got this new project because it was something I never would have thought could happen.

.... While walking down from the store to my apartment, I happen to see a boy in a toy shop, playing with lego blocks. What he was trying to build was a tall tower, but it wasnt straight. Just as he was about to place the final block on the top, the tower collapsed. To my suprise, he did not cry, but started collecting the scattered blocks and started building up his tower, which was half its original size now.

.... life is just like the tower of building blocks... you keep building it by placing one block on another, not realizing that it is not straight and finally, one fine day, it all collapses. Thats what we call it as a life changing experience. something, which shook us completely from the ground and gave us a fresh point to start.

by the time i realized what i had just figured out, the boy was standing next to his new built tower clapping with joy.

The accident which I thought was bad for me, turned out to be a blessing...
... i got to see caring of my friends
... i got close to my family once again
... i got promotion following huge success on the project
and .... I happen to learn music.