Over the course of my injury, I’ve learned to wean out those who broke me down. I’ve had a handful of close friends say, “Caroline, why don’t you give up on climbing and skiing and pick a new, safer sport to pursue?” Those comments, considering who they were from, burned a hole in my heart, but I elected to continue pursuing my love for mountaineering. Through all of the years of daily pain, I knew I wasn’t going to give up on it before at least giving it a shot after getting my knee replaced. I placed a firm boundary between those who broke my spirits, and with gratitude, I’ve replaced them with those who build me up.
One of my doctors and his team employ the philosophy: “think of yourself as an athlete in recovery rather than a patient in rehab.” Wow, those words stuck in my head and always will. I still trained like the athlete I was before the injury, with long hours and multiple sessions, only within the limits of what my knee would allow let me do. I chose to follow what Nike says by “redefining my impossible” and am so fortunate to now have an incredible team working together for my good. People laugh at me all the time, but I’ve always looked up to Tim Tebow. He pursued his dreams to play professional football, and despite all of his naysayers he worked his hardest every single day. He stands as an unabashed defender of his faith and openly wears it on his sleeve for the world to see. He displays natural leadership, humility, kindness, and moxie in a way that I find immeasurably motivating. Everything he does, he does with passion. Without passion, we can’t live our lives completely and utterly to full capacity.
I'm continually amazed at how believing in yourself and visualizing success make an undeniable difference. I refuse to be defeated by my plight. Those people, including many doctors, who told me to give up the fact that I’ll climb and ski again, they fueled the fire in my heart that was pushing me to prove them wrong. Not a day went by that I didn’t visualize myself skiing or climbing. During the 2016/2017 ski season, that same fire in my heart said I should try skiing using two substantial knee braces. Absolutely, there was a lot of pain and some days I could only do a few short runs, but skiing twelve days that season was a miracle given the status of my shredded up knee. And it was only possible through the power of visualization.