Seems there's a few of us here, I'm curious about people's stories, how did you get here, what was the precipitating event?


If you're gonna ask the question you have to being willing to go first:

I still live in the land of denial, still have that magical thinking that someday I'll be my old badass self again. I became a firefighter back in the early 80's, there were less than a 100 women worldwide in the profession working fulltime, I was one of those few. The gear didn't fit, you pushed through injuries so as not to be seen as a "pu***", you put up with crap that would get everyone and their brother sued nowadays... all because the job was awesome and more importantly, best. job. ever. But I sure pay for it now; after six knee surgeries I have a new knee that doesn't work right. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat, what I did mattered, there are people alive because I did a good job, it doesn't get any more important, any better, than that.

But, now I'm sort of disabled (I meet the criteria but won't let my doc submit the paperwork yet), there are so many things I can't do anymore, something as simple as putting on my socks requires planning. Surely not where I thought I'd be at this time in my life.

How about you?