He Could Sit on the Bank, or He Could Build a New Boat

Scot Hollonbeck shares Part 2 of his story.

Editor’s Note: How do you handle the end of a dream? Do you spend a lifetime mourning what could have been, or do you create a new dream? Internationally-known athlete Scot Hollonbeck talks about the long road back and how he’s created his new dream for his life: Part 2 of a 5-part Series.

“After I found out I’d never walk again (see Day 1), I tried to keep myself together and act brave for my family, but I was scared to death,” Scot Hollonbeck says. After one year, Hollonbeck rejoined life at the insistence of his family and his coaches.

 

“My coaches kept harassing me to come back to the swim and the track teams,” Hollonbeck reports. He started-out taping ankles and rolling his wheelchair around the track, but his swim coach was determined to get him back on the swim team.

 

Hollonbeck explains, “She kept asking me to come-back to the swim team. I knew I couldn’t swim, and I was shy and embarrassed due to the changes in my body. I didn’t want to look awkward, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer. Every time I had an excuse or a reason why I couldn’t join the swim team, the coach would have a solution. She finally wore me down, until I gave-up and went to swim-team practice. I nearly drowned the first time. I was frustrated and learned that pride was my biggest enemy. I didn’t like that I had to have help getting in and out of the pool, but at the end of the day, I really enjoyed it.”

 

Then the track coach timed Hollonbeck’s first lap in his wheelchair and told him that this was his first benchmark, and that his goal was to get better every day. From that first lap, he realized he had a goal and a way to accomplish that goal. He learned that although he was slower, he was still an athlete. Hollonbeck concentrated on becoming a faster athlete.

 

“I began to practice with my chair every day to see how fast I could go,” Hollonbeck says. “Then I started entering 5K races. Once I began to set goals and obtain them, I realized that I could have new goals instead of mourning the inability to reach my old ones. I kicked my life into high gear.”

Scot decided to find a new way to get down the river of life.

During his recovery, Hollonbeck says, “I realized that I’d been floating down the river of life in a canoe, totally unaware of all the benefits I was enjoying in my life. Then, because of the accident, I felt like someone had snatched me out of the canoe and set me on the bank, and I’d now have to be an observer rather than a participant. At this point, I decided that I either could sit on this bank for 15 years and then die (according to national statistics) or find another way to get down the river.”

So, Hollonbeck decided to turn his life into a speedboat to fly down the river of life, stacking accomplishments on top of accomplishments.

Disaster is either the worst thing or the best thing that possibly can happen to you, and you have to make a choice in how you’ll face one. Instead of letting his wheelchair become a limiting factor, Hollonbeck decided to use the wheelchair to his advantage and reach a level of success about which only few even would dare to dream.

Scot shreds on the water while volunteering as a counselor at a summertime wheelchair camp.

Tomorrow’s Post: Athlete Scot Hollonbeck Consciously Decides to Live Life to the Fullest

About the Author: For the last 12 years, John E. Phillips of Vestavia, Alabama, has been a professional blogger for major companies, corporations and tourism associations throughout the nation. During his 24 years as Outdoor Editor for “The Birmingham Post-Herald” newspaper, he published more than 7,000 newspaper columns and sold more than 100,000 of his photos to newspapers, magazines and internet sites. He also hosted a radio show that was syndicated at 27 radio stations; created, wrote and sold a syndicated newspaper column that ran in 38 newspapers for more than a decade; and wrote and sold more than 30 books. Learn more at http://www.nighthawkpublications.com