Tenacious

Write a new post in response to today’s one-word prompt.

Totally Tenacious

An example of tenacious is a person who lives for another twenty years with a terminal disease.

I do not have a terminal disease but I did suffer a severe spinal cord injury 52 years ago. You might say I am a tenacious person because I have refused to give up or to follow all the rules in the book about living with severe spinal cord damage.

The doctors recommended I not lifting anything over 20 pounds yet I took a job unloading freight cars two years after my injury. Being hungry is a great work incentive. I took a day labor job where they find you work and keep a sizeable portion of your pay. I did manage to stay alive this way because I had money for food. That might be considered more staunch than tenacious.

I did many different jobs that required lifting but finally went to work driving truck. I drove every type of truck, gravel truck, propane gas, tanker truck, refrigerated trucks hauling meat from the Midwest to Arizona and California. That job also required much heavy lifting along with traveling many rough roads, sitting on seats that were poor quality in many trucks.

Neurology doctors look at my MRI’s and wonder how I can still walk. My spinal column and cord have been inflicted with just about every type of problem that can affect the spine. At the present time, the inside of my spinal cord is completely hollowed out from the tailbone to the base of the brain. That has destroyed many nerves controlling different parts of the body. I can still walk and make the most of each new day, I guess that makes me tenacious, persistent or determined.

I do believe being a truly tenacious person is all mental. You can ask the body to do just about anything and it will comply with your mental commands. The body is capable of doing them, it is all connected to the right frame of mind to start with. If you are determined and unwavering, doggedly work for your goals, you can reach just about anything you decide on. You must first will yourself do it, or it will never happen.

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