For years I have had one inspiration in my life.  My father takes pictures of injured people for a living.  There are so many people who have had terrible accidents and have become paralyzed from it.  I’ve seen my share of gross things but nothing will ever compare to the impact that my Uncle’s injury has given me.  He has been paralyzed since I was around three years old.  My parents tell me how athletic he once was and I can never picture it for myself.  My Uncle was a great cross country skier, he ran in the New York City Marathon, but his passion was bicycle riding.  He would tell me stories of how he rode his bicycle from the city all the way to Bear Mountain and back in one day.  The miles that he would ride would astonish everyone.  He rode about forty miles in one day and loved to do it.  He would enter into races and travel the world with his bicycle.  Anywhere I’ve been, chances are he’s toured it with his bicycle.  I say tour because he rode throughout the entire country.  Places like Peru, Paris and Germany were some of the places that I remember him telling me about multiple times.  The bicycle rides are not what inspires me about him.  When I was three years old, he rode his bicycle to work in the snow.  One of the city pothole covers was risen above the ground.  Because of the snow, he couldn’t see the pothole.  His bicycle flipped him over and he hit his chin on a car.  It instantly gave him whiplash and paralyzed him waist down.

            My entire life he was my best friend.  He mediated when I got into fights with my parents, he told me stories, he had one of the best humors that I had ever seen, we played games, and watched Laurel and Hardy episodes that he had videotaped.  His outlook on life is absolutely remarkable.  For someone who has lost what was most important to him, he has a remarkably positive outlook on life.  I find that most people who have disabilities are more life appreciating and have a good outlook on life.  My uncle is definitely one of these people.  He has no girlfriend because no one wants to deal with someone who is paralyzed and perhaps he’s stopped looking, and he lives with my grandmother.  He had an apartment in city but because there was no elevator, he was forced to stay with my grandmother.  He has a job at NBC studios, where he controls the air-conditioning.  It is one of the simplest jobs.  He sits on the internet, watches TV, sleeps during his lunch break and still gets paid a great deal of money.

            I was in ninth grade when he finally settled his case against the city.  Trolman, from Trolman, Glaser, and Lichtman (one of the companies my parents do work for) was his lawyer.  His settlement was for five million dollars, which most people get wide-eyed for.  Whether or not he is now a millionaire he still doesn’t have his legs which would have been the best gift of all for him.  I only hope that everyone can have someone who they can look at the way I look at him.  He is and always will be my inspiration.