Jaap Bressers was twenty-one when his life changed drastically after an accident in Portugal.
It begun with a big wave and a dive into the ocean which cracked his neck and left him paralysed. As he floated underwater, unable to move, he started to say his goodbyes and asked himself one question: “What do I leave behind? Did I, in my own way, leave anything special behind?” The feeling wasn’t great. It was bad even.
Jaap later woke up in an hospital room with a body that did not respond. He was in complete panic and scared. The human touch of Carlos, one of the nurses, who put a hand on his shoulder and told him “It’s Okay” turned out to be a powerful small gesture that meant the world to Jaap, because to him that simple attention he received from Carlos, was enough to give him the strength to realise he was still alive.
After a heavy rehabilitation period, Jaap completely turned his life around.
Jaap Bresses is a motivational speaker and author of the book “Where there’s a wheel, there’s a way”. (The book is currently being translated into English and will be available soon.)
This powerful story goes to show that everyone has in them the power of making a difference to someone else’s life just even with a touch. We can all do something special for someone just with our presence, smile or support. The beauty of this, and one of Jaap’s mottos, is that we can all do it and it doesn’t matter our age, background, finance or education.
We can’t always choose what experiences come our way, sometimes we are handled a bad hand, but we can choose how to respond to them and we can choose how we deal with our setbacks.
