MENINGITIS WON'T DEFINE US

This is the face of meningitis. It looks like any average young man of twenty-one. But it is far from that. I'm going to spare you the melodrama of how my first born son, Alex contacted the disease or how it has permanently changed his life. Instead I am going to take you to the place where he is now. It's a place most young men his age can't really appreciate. It's a place of green grass, and squirrels and purple flowers. My son is amazed by the simplest things he sees. He gets excited over seeing flowers along side the road, or seeing a squirrel scurry by, or seeing a bird in a tree, or even just recognizing that the grass is green. Many would pity him, that he can't go to college, hold a job or drive a car, can't even date, or go to the bars with the guys for a drink. Yet I marvel at the opportunity his illness HAS given him, a far greater insight into life than any of us really have, a much deeper appreciation over the simple things that most of us take for granted. So, no meningitis doesn't define him. On the contrary, it has shaped him into someone who can truly enjoy this world and its simple pleasures this world has to offer.