May 17, 2003 was the best and worst day of my life for the same reason. It seems, to me, ironic how this could be, but it is. I had gone out drinking with a friend of mine in Jacksonville, NC just off the Marine Corps base in which I was stationed. I started drinking at the Outback Steakhouse, moved to the Marina Cafe, where I got into a little dispute over absolutely nothing, and finally to a barracks room. We had just moved rooms that day and the room I was supposed to move into was quarantined. I couldn't drink there, so I went to a friend's to hammer down a couple more and finally pass out. The first concrete memory that I have after that is being transported from Pitt County Memorial in Greenville to the V.A. hospital in Richmond, VA. This was approximately 3 weeks after on June 6th or there about. I suffered a broken hip, which required internal fixation (addition of metal hardware), a broken pelvis, lacerated kidney and Post Traumatic Amnesia (results of shearing and hemorrhaging in my frontal lobe). I still suffer from these injuries today and I probably always will. Some are probably asking how this could be a good thing. The answer is this...it got me out of the Marine Corps to be paid for the rest of my life, my college paid for and it was a wake up call from God. See, I obeyed the gospel on June 6, 1995 and was an avid christian until I fell away. Now, I am back in the graces of God and have an eternal home in Heaven. This is why suffering the way I did is the best and worst thing that has ever happened to me.

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