In the small rural school there was an old coal stove very old-fashioned. A little boy was assigned the task of arriving at school early every day to light the fire and warm up the classroom before his teacher and his classmates arrived.
One morning, they arrived and found the school engulfed in flames. They pulled out the unconscious child more dead than alive from the building. He had severe burns to the lower half of his body and was rushed to the county hospital.
In his bed, the horribly burned and semi-unconscious child, he heard the doctor talking to his mother. He told her that his son would surely die that it was the best thing to happen, really - because the fire had destroyed the lower part of his body.
But the brave boy did not want to die. He decided that he would survive.
Somehow, to the great surprise of the doctor, he survived.
Once the danger of death was over, he heard again his mother and the doctor talking slowly. Since the fire had greatly damaged the lower extremities of his body, the doctor told the mother, it would have been much better if he died, since he was condemned to be an invalid all his life, without the possibility of using his legs.
Once again the brave kid took a decision. I would not be an invalid.
I would walk. But unfortunately, from the waist down, I had no motor capacity. His thin legs hung without life.
Finally, they released him.
Every day, his mother massaged his legs, but there was no feeling, no control, nothing.
However, his determination to walk was stronger than ever.
When I was not in bed, I was confined to a wheelchair.
That day instead of sitting, he threw himself out of the chair. He pulled himself across the grass dragging legs.
He started doing the same thing every day until he made a small footprint next to the fence. Nothing wanted more than to give life to those two legs.
Finally, thanks to the fervent prayers of his mother and his daily massages, his steadfast persistence and resolute determination, he developed the capacity,
first to stop, then to stagger and finally walk alone and then run.
He started walking to school, then running, for the simple pleasure of running. Later, at the university, he was part of the track race team.
And even later, at Madison Square Garden, this young man who had no hope of survival, who would never walk, who would never have the chance to run, this determined young man, Glenn Cunningham, became the American athlete who ran the longest mile speed the world!
Have the courage and strength to make your decisions and be constant when it comes to shaping them.
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