In an Imaginary World...

[SuzE-Q]

Maybe it's the new year, but I seem to be more contemplative. For better or for worse, this forum is the recipient of my thinking....

So, in an imaginary world where MS doesn't exist, how do you think your life might have been different?

I think I might have worked for a NGO (ie - non-profit) in a far off country, working maybe for an orphanage or something.

Or maybe raising and bringing assistance dogs to where they are needed. Seeing the support dogs that help communities deal with a tremendous crisis such as the Newtown tragedy touched me deeply.

I think those are endeavors I would have liked to undertake without MS.

[renee]

If I hadn't had MS I don't think think I would have discovered
my inner attack dog.
That said, I don't know what my life would have been like without
my inner pit bull.
Earlier in my life and more assertive, I may have pushed my way onto
the ground floor of Sesame Street as a muppeteer.
Play and the arts have always made me happy.
Pit bull meet Fairyland.

Were I to wake up healed, walking and sixty- without adequate passion to pursue
more formal education for any of the things that are most important
to me, I think I would join the PeaceCorps and gotten involved with kids
and whatever else was needed.

I now know how to be poor and not so afraid

[SuzE-Q]

Yes, the PeaceCorp, I LOVE them!!!

Yes, I wonder if I would have been so altruistic and community minded if I'd never encountered MS. I wonder if I'd have wanted to help others as much as I think that I would have, or if I'd have been more ego-centric.

[Cat Dancer]

If I hadnt developed ms I would have become a parent, something we were seriously contemplating when I was diagnosed. I would also have opened our home -- or started a larger home, to house people with intellectual disabilities. Or perhaps a boarding house for battered women.

[SalpalSally]

I'd like to think, that if MS hadn't attacked me in my 20s, I would have been
or done something great with my life. As it was, though, I was on my way to
an usual full but mundane life of a self sacrificing yet wonderful, Wife, Mother,
perhaps working Accountant and all around fun person.

I think I am a much better and wiser person, thanks to my disabling encount-
er with MS! I always liked myself but, think I like and respect myself more
with MS.

[Sunshine]

These are moving posts. Thank you all for sharing Yourselves.

Fatigue has been my main crippler. I would've traveled a lot more rather than sending my husband off to travel alone. I would've gone to lots of parties and evening events like lectures and music events and get-togethers with friends. I would've had dinner parties. I would've gonie out and made friends more and been less isolated.

[renee]

I would have had a collection of shoes second only to Imelda Marcos.

[Virginia]

I would have hosted more dinners, but some of them would have been for different types of people. I would have traveled much more. I would have liked to enjoy the arts more, more ballet, more theatre, more art shows, etc.

I would also like to have been more active in my community with church and many groups.

[SuzE-Q]

I would have hosted more dinners, but some of them would have been for different types of people.

This is really the time for that type of interest too, what with sites like Only registered and activated users can see links., Click Here To Register... available to connect people interested in a homemade meal with homes to host them. These days, you could come up with very eclectic mixes of people, and wouldn't that be fun?!

[Virginia]

Yes SusE-Q, I always had an adventuresome spirit and my horizons were fairly broad. I wanted to see and do things. Guess that is why it worked so well when I was married and lived in France and Germany.

I envy Parsi.

[Parsi]

Yes SusE-Q, I always had an adventuresome spirit and my horizons were fairly broad. I wanted to see and do things. Guess that is why it worked so well when I was married and lived in France and Germany.

I envy Parsi.

Envy me? Without MS perhaps. But with MS the travel about kills me. Then there's all the bureaucractic headaches involved with two countries.

At one time I did desire to work for a company that would send me from country to country, living in each for a few years. However I never really believed I had the competencies that would attract such a position.

[agate]

Parsi, I'm SO glad I don't have to travel around anywhere! And I used to enjoy going places, seeing different things.

At one time I did desire to work for a company that would send me from country to country, living in each for a few years.

My sister's life was a bit like that. She became a nurse, went to Saudi Arabia for 2 years, married a Sudanese man and lived in the Sudan for a while, then a few years in Ghana, then a few years in Nigeria, and finally they wound up in Holland, where they stayed until they died. Except for the Saudi Arabian stay, where she worked as a nurse, it was her husband's job that took them from place to place. Her nursing credentials couldn't be used in many foreign countries, as I understand it.