Life moves fast and sometimes we don’t realize how fast we’re
going.
It was early 2011 when I decided to dedicate all my efforts
to a new project I was working on in Puerto Rico. This new business was taking up
a lot of my energy, money and time and unfortunately things were not falling
into place as I had planned. I felt like
I kept hitting road blocks; everywhere I turned there was an issue or some type
of problem and things were just not working out but, I was still hopeful.
I decided to give it one more try and so I booked a business
trip to Puerto Rico for twelve long days. This trip was planned for me to iron
out all the final details and move forward with our business launch. I was willing to do everything within my power
to make this new business profitable. I went from meeting to meeting, met a lot of
new faces but, for some reason, something just didn’t feel right. I was completely exhausted and stressed
out. I was working non-stop with barely
any sleep and was genuinely concerned.
It was the last day of my trip when I unexpectedly started to
feel sick. It had been a pretty
demanding business trip so I figured I had just over done it and my body was
finally shutting down. I had one last
meeting right before my flight, with a distributor, to communicate the
expectations and deadlines our company had for the project. After the meeting I drove straight to the
airport to head back home to Orlando. At
that point I really started to feel weak but, I kept moving forward and boarded
the plane. As we were getting ready to
take off the flight attendant approached me and asked “Are you ok? You look sick.” And I responded “Oh, I’m just really tired;
it’s been a long week.”
We finally land in Orlando when all of a sudden I feel a hot
sensation on the right side of my stomach to the point where I had a hard time
walking. It was a weird feeling but I
kept moving anxious to get home. As
soon as I got home I took a shower and noticed some type of insect bite on my
stomach. The area was completely red and swollen. I called my mother right away and she told me
to monitor the bite and apply Neosporin.
When morning came my condition had worsened. The pain was so intense that I was unable to
walk or do much of anything. I ended up
in the emergency room with absolutely no energy, could barely breathe and was
told I needed an emergency surgery right away. I had been bitten by a poisonous spider during my trip to Puerto Rico and had a very serious
infection. I was given five different
antibiotics but, none would kill the bacteria. To make matters worse, I was also told I had a
twenty percent chance of survival. I
found myself at the hospital fighting for my life.
Thankfully the surgery was a success and I slowly started to
recover. That was the moment I realized that
work is not everything in our lives. I had an opportunity to evaluate what
really mattered in my life and know who my true friends were. I ended up terminating the contract we had with
the distributor in Puerto Rico and took three months off from work. I needed to reevaluate certain things and make
changes. I couldn’t believe I had ended
up in the hospital and almost lost my life.
So many bad things were happening. I found out two years later that the same distributor
we had started working with ended up in jail for conducting unethical business.
At that moment I realized that “The
Spider Bite” was a lesson to slow down.
I no longer rush into situations or business arrangements
with people. I’ve learned to allow time
to show what’s best for me. I encourage
you to slow down and try to live a stress-free life because in the end you are
only hurting yourself. Today I live a
healthy life. I handle situations case by case and have learned to trust my senses.
This is GOALYGO!
Yanira ALY Nazario J
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