{"id":1657,"date":"2010-05-02T08:00:11","date_gmt":"2010-05-02T12:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/?p=1657"},"modified":"2010-05-05T19:19:31","modified_gmt":"2010-05-05T23:19:31","slug":"10-years-after","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/2010\/05\/10-years-after\/","title":{"rendered":"10 years after"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, not quite four months to the day before my forty-first birthday, I got braces. Just a glance at my teeth and the reason why I need braces wouldn’t be obvious. Even a closer look, one that showed you the slight clipping of my right front tooth behind my left front tooth, what dentists in the U.S. call number 8 and number 9<\/a>, and it still wouldn’t be obvious why I’m spending an obscene amount of money and volunteering for a year or more of periodic dental pain. Nor would it be obvious why I’m happy to be able to do those things.<\/p>\n

Ten years ago today I took a header down a set of concrete stairs. Since no one actually saw me do it and I still can’t remember a thing about the incident, I have only speculation to rely upon. Speculation says that I tripped somehow, took the wrought iron railing across my upper teeth and immediately blacked out from the pain, went limp and slid down the concrete steps on my face.<\/p>\n

The perfect dentition I’d been born with, the perfect dentition that I’d managed to protect through 18 years of fast pitch softball, ruined in less than a minute. And yet, I’d still say that I’m lucky.<\/p>\n

The orthodontia I had to have after the accident wasn’t fun, or complete obviously. Relearning how to chew and eating everything with a knife and fork for upwards of a year wasn’t the best experience I could ever have hoped to have. Not feeling comfortable enough with my mouth to eat an apple like a normal person for over three years was also not how I would have chosen to spend my time. Yet, I wouldn’t trade those experiences in for anything. Why?<\/p>\n

Quite simply: I am lucky to be alive.<\/p>\n

The emergency room doctor who treated me expressed astonishment that I hadn’t broken my nose and in the same breath told me how lucky I was that I hadn’t snapped my neck either. An amazing, awesome number of possibilities, ranging from full body paralysis to death, await you if you break your neck in just the wrong place. Yet, I managed to walk, albeit slowly, up those same stairs later that day and sit down on my couch.<\/p>\n

Tens years later and despite life’s daily frustrations, despite the non-profit management follies that often fill me up to my back teeth with frustration and suppressed rage, despite my natural bent to see the dark cloud around the sliver lining, I relish every single minute I’ve had in the past 10 years and I’m thankful for every one I may have in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, not quite four months to the day before my forty-first birthday, I got braces. Just a glance at my teeth and the reason why I need braces wouldn’t be obvious. Even a closer look, one that showed you the slight clipping of my right front tooth behind my left front tooth, what dentists […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-thoughts","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1657"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1662,"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1657\/revisions\/1662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}