At 19, the speaker lost both kidneys, their spleen, and hearing in one ear. Overwhelmed by medical crises, they survived by compartmentalizing: each week focused on one problem, ignoring the rest. This method works for any hardship.
When I was 19 years old, you know, I lost my kidneys, my spleen, my hearing in my left ear all at once. I was going to a doctor's appointment one day to work on legs. The next day I'd have to go to a kidney appointment to figure out if I was going to have to have a kidney transplant. Uh, the next day I'd have to go to like a hearing appointment to figure out if I needed a hearing aid. And this was all at 19 years old and it was so overwhelming and it could completely crush you. But what I started doing is focusing on one thing at a time. So I would say, okay, you know what, this week is just leg week. That's it. I'm not thinking about my other problems. You know, I'm not thinking. Yeah, I'm not thinking about my kidneys. I'm not thinking about if I need a hearing aid. I'm just thinking about my legs and that's it. And then the next week would be, okay, now we're focused on my kidney. Like, do I need a kidney transplant? Let's get blood work, everything that we have to get. And just by kind of segmenting things out, it got rid of that overwhelm. And I've used that throughout the rest of my life. I mean, it's something that you can use whether you're going through challenges, like compartmentalize can help you go through challenges, but also help you rise above and, and achieve the things that you wanna achieve as well.
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