{"id":1035,"date":"2021-12-23T12:03:11","date_gmt":"2021-12-23T12:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/?p=1035"},"modified":"2021-12-23T12:06:05","modified_gmt":"2021-12-23T12:06:05","slug":"18-years-later-12-17-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/2021\/12\/23\/18-years-later-12-17-21\/","title":{"rendered":"18 Years Later (12\/17\/21)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-1 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><ul class=\"blocks-gallery-grid\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><a href=\"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/DMB18.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/DMB18-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"1036\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/DMB18.jpg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/?attachment_id=1036\" class=\"wp-image-1036\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/DMB18-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/DMB18-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/DMB18-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/DMB18-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/DMB18.jpg 1054w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;However small, first step is hardest of all.&#8221; &#8211; Dave Matthews Band<br><br>It was just a \u2018silly\u2019 concert.\u00a0 At least it was supposed to be&#8230;<br><br>In December 2003, I was still struggling with having been told about eventually becoming blind.\u00a0 The prior 5.5 years had essentially been living in classrooms, libraries and in front of computers so that I could finish college before that occurred.\u00a0 But after having enjoyed a concert in the Chicago area the prior summer, I decided to take a chance and head into NYC after my last final.\u00a0 I knew it would be a challenge, but decided to take the chance.<br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I don\u2019t remember all of the details of the evening.&nbsp; But the important parts are this \u2013 it ended up well and its success gave me the confidence to do so much more.&nbsp; While I don\u2019t remember the exact point (some point between Dancing Nancies and Up on Cripple Creek), I do remember looking up at the ceiling and saying \u2018it\u2019s all going to work out\u2019.&nbsp;<br><br>And for the most part, that\u2019s been true over the last 18 years. &nbsp;That initial success gave me the confidence to do and try so many other things that were \u2018scary\u2019 to me at the time.&nbsp; Those early successes became cumulative and helped me to be \u2018okay\u2019 trying the adaptive sports world.&nbsp;<br><br>While 2020 and 2021 were a bit derailed due to the pandemic, I have a lot of exciting stuff planned and penciled in for 2022.&nbsp; Hopefully it will all fall into place.&nbsp; To see how it all turns out, please follow the blog or @nocrappyexcuses on social media.<br><br>I was fortunate enough to have an opportunity to thank Dave in person in 2018 after one of the shows at Northerly Island.&nbsp; The post photo is from that post-show meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;However small, first step is hardest of all.&#8221; &#8211; Dave Matthews Band It was just a \u2018silly\u2019 concert.\u00a0 At least it was supposed to be&#8230; In December 2003, I was still struggling with having been told about eventually becoming blind.\u00a0 The prior 5.5 years had essentially been living in classrooms, libraries and in front of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/2021\/12\/23\/18-years-later-12-17-21\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">18 Years Later (12\/17\/21)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1035"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1038,"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035\/revisions\/1038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}