I hurt my hand…badly.
I never realised how useful my limbs were until I was forced to work my life using only my right hand. And as dramatic as it sounds, the number of times I wished to have even a sliver of patience to deal with the hook that became my left hand was actually pathetic.
Most people looked at my situation and commented on how lucky I was.
My God-fearing, Indian mother said that it was divine intervention that I didn’t lose a thumb.
Regardless, I couldn’t help but still feel a little annoyed.

For those who don’t know, which is probably most of you, I clamped and punctured both sides of my thumb. A messy flesh wound that was soon tightly wound up in white bandages which quickly became soaked in deep red blood. For the longest minute of my life, I thought I lost a thumb….the doctor told me that I was lucky to only receive a flesh wound, that it would take three to four weeks to heal and that I was going to have to be patient with what was going to be a painful recovery.

Thus became the worst start to October I’ve had since my HSC exams.

Conor McGregor had lost in devastating fashion, the sun was replaced by cloudy grey skies that soaked Sydney with rain…and I was left with one and a half hands as opposed to the usual two that I had, over my 23 years of life,  grown very fond of.

I was stuck to showering with plastic bags on, dealing with a very tricky toilet situation and a whole lot of time off that I never anticipated I’d ever have.

A wave of mild depression swept in and I secluded myself to my room as my unshaven face and heavy bagged eyes made me look shabbier and shabbier.
It wasn’t until I was literally about to drive my other hand into my bedroom wall did my mum and dad bribe me to come downstairs with pizza and Harry Potter. A well-needed break from a toxic time of solitude that sadly didn’t last long.

My brother and sister-in-law rocked up the next Sunday. Soon my annoyance was directed at once again sharing a bathroom with a 30-year-old bear that I call my older brother, which was smashed on top of being handicapped. Naturally, I dug myself deeper into my room…but thankfully I found a better way to amuse myself that didn’t end with me being overly frustrated.

Amongst digging through various YouTube videos, I found an interview with Matthew McConaughey from a couple of years ago. It was about the time he spent shedding weight for his role in The Dallas Buyers Club. He spoke about how hermitic he had become over that time…not going out with family & friends and never really being able to enjoy life outside of the role. But in his state of seclusion, he recited that he read and wrote more than he ever did before.

Now there are many things that Matthew McConaughey and I share in common.
In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if we were mistaken for each other at times, both in looks and personality. But there are many more things about him that I never thought I could relate to. And to tell the truth, it wasn’t till he said that, did I realise how much of an artist he was. Partly because those rough periods are when an artist always turns to their craft. Something he, like many actors, performers, dancers, musicians, painters and writers have done before.

It was then that I realised how stupid I was.
I spent hours thinking about how much I wanted to be outside. How much I wanted to get back into the gym, go walk my dog or at least enjoy one day of drinking and eating without shoving 1000 mg of antibiotics twice, daily.
As a result, I got lazy and let this small albeit serious injury get to my head…I became weak.

Having said that, I realised Injuries and illness are not always curses…they can be blessings in disguise, no matter how shit they may be. Dare I say that without nearly losing my thumb, maybe I would never have truly appreciated how valuable my left hand was…dramatic I know, but to me, it was a realisation that I valued more than lifting weight or being able to shower comfortably.

This sudden and somewhat overdramatic epiphany made me dive into books that I never really paid attention to, watch videos of things I would never really give a second thought of and allowed me to become more and more obsessed with storytelling than I ever was before.  I was blind and was wasting my time waiting to heal when I should’ve been taking advantage of the rare time off that I had been gifted. Instead, I worried unnecessarily when there was really nothing more that could be done.
Too often as humans, we waste time. We always think about how the grass is always greener and never really make use of what’s around us. Innovation and creativity are foundational stones to our humanity, and yet we let it get trampled by something out of our control.
Making the best of a bad situation is never out of reach.  If anything, we can always look at the positive and try and make do with what we have.

If three weeks was the price I had to pay to properly learn how to appreciate working with what time we have, then I’d happily pay that price again. I call that a bargain. Because the value in learning to use what time we have… is way more important than waiting for our life to get back together.