Welcome to My Life

Thank you for visiting my site and welcome to my blog! I am in the process of writing a book which I hope to have published by the end of this year. The purpose of this blog is to introduce you to myself and to feed you bits and pieces of my story. The goal being that you become interested enough to want to hear the entire story. The title of the book will be ‘Well… I Guess I’m Not Jesus.’ It will make sense shortly… I promise!

I am 25 years old and I live in Columbus, Ohio and I’m a recent graduate in Civil Engineering of the Ohio State University. I doubt you hear of many civil engineers graduating and then going on to write a book. For me I feel that is necessary to put my civil engineering career on hold to share my story. 

Since my start at the Ohio State University in 2005, I have had my share of success stories but also massive failures which have both shaped me into who I am today. It only took me 7 years to finish my degree… This was because I screwed up but I was given a 2nd chance on life not just once, but twice. I had to take a year off of school in 2008 and then a year off of school in 2011. In both situations I lost my mind and then on January 22, 2011 losing my mind led me to lose my body. 

Both situations involved a manic episode brought on by bipolar disorder. In 2008 I went on a massive spending spree, drug binge, and one intense trip to California that eventually left me waking up in the psych ward. For weeks I found myself locked up suffering from delusions of grandeur. I truly believed that I was Jesus Christ and that I was on camera in the psych ward and that everybody in the world was watching the second coming of Jesus Christ. I spent several months getting my mind back to where it was before everything went down. 

Before being sent to the psych ward I was on top of the world. I had been accepted into the Sphinx Senior Class Honorary earlier that year. It was a result of all my hard work at the Ohio State University. Every year 24 students are selected that best represent the Ohio State University. It is the highest honor which can be accorded a student at the Ohio State University. Later that year I found myself hitting rock bottom but slowly I once again climbed to the top. 

Over the next couple years I helped to build the Ohio State Water Ski Team into a national title contender. Waterskiing was always my greatest passion. In the fall of 2010 our team qualified for Nationals for the 1st time in over 30 years. That year we won the Division II National Title. Once again I was on top of the world. 

A few months later, in January of 2011, I decided to go off my medications for 5 days. By the 5th day I once again began to believe that I was Jesus Christ. On the night of January 22, 2011 I took a drive that would forever change my life. I will go into the details of the events leading up to this drive later. I felt that I was invincible and I took a drive from Columbus which ended near Indianapolis in the city of Rushville, Indiana. The billboards that were plastered along Interstate 70 west that said things like “Jesus is Real” only fueled my manic episode. There is a lot to this story but for now I’ll just explain that the drive ended with me looking down at my speedometer and reading 120 mph and then looking in my rearview mirror and seeing police lights back in the distance. Then everything went black.

I flipped my car either 5 or 9 times and landed upside down in the snow.  An article about the crash with a picture of my car can be found here:

http://rushvillerepublican.com/local/x233970932/Questions-remain-in-serious-injury-accident

 I will go into details of the crash in later posts. The end result of the accident was a C6 and C7 spinal cord injury that left me paralyzed from the chest down. I was rendered a quadriplegic. I spent 3 1/2 months in the hospital. Not only did I have to deal with my medical conditions but I also had to deal with the manic episode that continued for weeks while I was in the hospital. But believing that I was Jesus Christ only gave me false hope that I would recover 100% and one day walk again.

 Since my accident I have gone through stages such as manic phases and extreme depression. I’ve had to fight for my life to get a smile back on my face. The 1st year was the hardest but now that things have settled down I am finally happy again and optimistic about my future. I never expected to go through something so terrible but I never believed that it would open my eyes so much and that I would be able to give so much back to the world. I feel that now that I am in a wheelchair I will be more successful than I ever imagined. Today I use my experiences to help others realize what they have and to not take anything for granted. 

In the coming posts you will learn many of the secrets from my life. I want others to learn from my experiences which is why I am willing to share them. Please continue to follow my blog. I want people to understand what it is like to live as a quadriplegic and to live with bipolar disorder. I want to be the voice of these people. So please tell your friends and continue to follow my story. The details are both hilarious but at times depressing. In the end the only thing that matters is that I’m still alive and that I’m here to share my story. I look forward to sharing my life with all of you!