I've been very fortunate to have driven some incredible people over the years who inspired me. These five stories all came from Colorado and they are very different, but the people were all incredible.
HIS WHOLE LIFE AHEAD OF HIM
I picked up the college student with an unusual name that sounded like "A-ton."(means sturdy) He told me he had a very difficult childhood and his name didn't help. Kids would tease him and call him, "A ton of s_ _ _." When he complained to his dad, he laughed saying, "Your mom and I spent a lot of time coming up with a special name that you wouldn't be teased about." He told me that the GPS used to say his name, "but it gave up because it was too difficult." He said, "My mom got into politics after I tried to kill myself as a kid." She got several bills passed to help kids get therapy. He's doing great today with a terrific sense of humor and very creative ideas to be in business for himself in the future. I loved talking to him.
THE INSPIRING FUTURE NURSE
She lives in Alaska and majored in journalism. After a successful career in journalism and in her 50's, she's going back to school to being a nurse. About ten years ago she contracted a serious virus from her daughter. The doctors had great difficulty diagnosing her and she spent six months in a coma. She received incredible care and one night a nurse saved her life. She's completely healthy now and she wants to give back the great care that she got to other people. She will succeed. She left me one of the best comments I've heard in my car, "If you're not helping people, you're not living."
OVERCOMING ADVERSITY
Sometimes a rider can almost leave me speechless after hearing their story. This young woman was headed to a fundraiser and I took my wallet out and made a donation to her cause, the only time I've ever done that with a rider. She was born with a brain disability and has gone through several brain surgeries. It's rare, but her brain is too large for her head. She's in college studying theology and she's going to be a pastor in a seminary. Bright, articulate, and very personable, you would never know the adversity she's gone through at this point in her life. She'll be able to help a lot of people in the future to recognize how lucky they are.
THE THIRD JOSE WAS THE CHARM
He made my Sunday morning special with tipping me before and after the ride. He was the third Jose in my first six rides and he was a really good guy But the story he told me ranks as one of the best stories in 16,000 rides and explains why he is a special guy. This was it and there's nothing more I can say: "I should have died when I was 16. I was in a gang shooting and a bullet hit my heart. The doctor couldn't believe I was saved and it was a miracle. "I spoke to a nurse who said, 'God put his hand over his heart because you have more to do on this earth.' A few days later I was looking for that black nurse and I was told that they didn't have any black nurses in the emergency room and I never saw her again."
HE CHANGED HIS LIFE
The 60-year-old man in December left me with my mouth open and shaking my head. Fourteen years ago he was hooked on meth, had spent twenty years in jail for three bank robberies, and had no hope in his life. He went to some kind of meeting that convinced him to change his life. He met his wife at a recovery meeting and they have two young boys. He convinced a company to hire him at $12 an hour and they trained him to code and much more. He turned out to be their operations manager managing fifty people. He's helped two companies become million dollar companies. He's a totally different guy with a big smile and that smile will always hang in my car. He had me grinning all the way home.
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