Share Your Strong
I am Stephanie M. Freeman a single mother runner from the state of Georgia. And running isn’t something that has come so easily to my life.
At the age of 14 years old I lived two months of my life in a coma on life support, from a brain injury I received in an automobile accident on June 4, 1993. I experienced a traumatic brain injury and lung injury and was not expected to live. However, with faith, strength and determination I did pull through this state. Waking to a realization, that I was bound to a wheelchair and unable to walk. I was told I would be leaving that hospital a handicapped child. There were no hopes for me ever walking again.
I recall a day so vivid in my mind I woke up and knew who and where I was, and I have recalled that day every day since 1993. Sitting in front of a nurse’s station with my head hanging down and I had spit rolling uncontrollably from my mouth… I slowly lifted my head up and glanced around me and realized I was sitting in a wheelchair. I had no clue I had been in a coma 2 months, and no clue I had a brain injury. I remember asking myself as I glanced around me, Stephanie, what are you doing sitting here? So I proceeded to get up and get out of there. I tried just that and fell to the floor realizing then my ability to walk was gone.
That day on my knees of that hospital floor has been an extremely defining moment in my life. I made a promise to myself that day. I promised that I can and I would walk out of that hospital no matter what I was being told. And I kept that promise to myself. Because the same faith, strength and determination that got me out of that coma state, walked me out of those hospital doors on October 8th of 1993.
Today that faith, strength and determination has been a bond to my life. Assisting me through many struggles from this brain injury, but also driving me to be as strong as possible, and they have taken me as far as The Boston Marathon Finish Line.
Now 23 years later, I give back by sharing the strength I cultivated from those hard moments. With a non-profit brain trauma organization, I have developed called Share Your Strong. Speaking with children and individuals worldwide, providing encouragement to stay their course and keep faith so strong you can stand on it. I do this all through my testimony of the power of never giving up in life. Because I know for certain we are capable of moving mountains, and I know this because I have moved quite a few and I am far from done yet…
I am Stephanie M. Freeman a mother, a runner, but most importantly, I am a survivor…
Never Give Up, Never Give In, Never Stop Trying, Never EVER Give Up!
www.shareyourstrong.org