You Got This

A Beautiful Tennessean Day (C)Benjamin Leon 2018

As I was sitting outside my relatives' house on a beautiful Tennessean spring-almost-summer day listening to birds singing, looking at a couple of Robins jumping through the grass looking for something to eat, a mother and a father dove carrying twigs to finish their nest, the wind gently caressing each blade of grass while the strong sun rays were shining through the clouds on a beautiful blue sky, when I thought to myself: "I've really come a long way since it happened". It has been exactly 579 days since at the time of writing this article. "Maybe I need to help others overcome their hardships" I realized as those lines took my train of thought hostage for that brief moment.


"Social platforms were the perfect medium to get to people, because you do not need to approach them physically; especially for me, someone with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In no way is it an easy task to approach someone to either talk, help or ask for something over a counter."

I had been shot in the occipital region of my head and my temporal lobe had been pierced by a 9mm expansive bullet and the common denominator among the doctors regarding my critical state in the ICU was "death by gunshot in cold-blooded murder", which was completely logical; as I had no possibilities to survive this. Now, without further ado, here's the Tweet, which I made public on the 4th day of June, 2018:

"You are more powerful than you think, you can overcome anything. trust me, I lost my job, my 20/20 vision, part of my temporal lobe, my favorite phone, my friends, my self confidence, my clear mind, my job and my wife. if I can, even limping sometimes, you can too; never give up"

You were made in such a way you're the only one capable of overcoming the obstacles in your life and for that reason, your past, present and future have teamed up to mold you into the amazing person you are now and will continue to be.

There are times we reach rock bottom, but this time I reached the highest, most painful place possible, so high that my location pin of my life's timeline was right there; pinned involuntarily between "L.O.L., has it been difficult?" and "how much more pain can you withstand?". This, to me,was the highest and most painful place possible. In other words, there are very few to no things that can top what has happened to this day, it can't get worse from here, it can only get better. Look at where you are, you've already made it this far! 

Now, if you would: please take it easy, you got this!