Maritza

“I was faced with a war zone here on our own land, and my eyes and hands were seeing and touching death.”

Maritza chose to share her powerful story with me. If you scroll down you can read it in her own words.

It’s easy to create a story in our minds about someone based on a picture. For some reason we like to assume that most people are somehow living in an alternate universe where they simply don’t endure the same struggles and challenges we do. 

In our head they must have it all figured out while we struggle with even the most basic of tasks. We seem to think we can deduct these things all based on a simple image or feed on Instagram. 

This woman. This woman joined the marines at 19 years old. She was part of the 9/11 search and rescue at just 21. She saw and touched death with her own hands here on our soil. 

“I went from having goals and dreams for my future to being lost and confused about my life, but I pushed through.”

She was deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq. Her unit was attacked and as she described her experience to me I couldn’t help but to try and imagine what surrounded her, what went through her mind, how she felt and what she saw. She said her wrist was bent in such a way that her pinky was touching her forearm, the last thing she saw before passing out. When she awoke almost two months later she was in a hospital in Germany. 

The surgeries and life altering events that followed are enough to bring someone to their knees, to choose to surrender from the challenges in this life. But she chose to fight every step of the way. Every minute of every day a choice that she was bigger than any of this. 

Tell me now, when you look at her photos, or anyone else’s or that matter, will you look a little deeper? Stay a little longer to ponder what hardships they could possibly be going through? Rather than imagine that they are somehow living a perfect life and their purpose is only to shine a light on how imperfect yours is. Will you recognize that we’re all on this earth enduring hardships that are sometimes unfathomable and undetectable by a simple, beautiful image.

“I was told I was getting medically retired, and that I had two options of amputation or fusion.”

“I was 19 when I joined the Marine Corps. I joined against my family wishes, but before my grandmother passed she said "Maritza live your life to the fullest with no regrets. If you live life for your parents, remember one day they will be gone and you will miserable because you chose something they wanted for you, not what you wanted." Shortly after she passed away, and that was when I enlisted.

I was part of 9/11 search and rescue at age 21 and for the first time ever being a Marine became real. I was faced with a war zone here on our own land, and my eyes and hands were seeing and touching death. I was deployed overseas to Afghanistan in 2002 and then to Iraq in 2003. On June 03, 2003 our unit was attacked. All I can recall was being thrown and landing on my left side. When I looked down my wrist was bent in such a way that my pinky was touching my forearm. I can recall nothing after that except awakening in Germany where I was told I was unconscious for almost two months, and they were unsure if I was ever going to awaken. My life had changed forever.

When I awoke I had my head bandaged, my ribs bandaged and my left arm in a cast and it was hanging in an L position upright. I was told I was getting medically retired, and that I had two options of amputation or fusion. I chose to get the fusion, which means I lost all movement of my wrist. Shortly after I began to lose feeling and function in my legs and they realized that my lower back needed to be fused as well. Everything was taken from me.

I went from having goals and dreams for my future to being lost and confused about my life, but I pushed through. I was told I would never walk again, but I proved otherwise. I was told my brain was a 1/2 in off my skull, there is liquid in my lungs, and I that I would be in and out of hospitals, but I beat the odds. I am a mom of three, married, and have been able to pursue other dreams. I became a Christian, and have found that I am beautifully and perfectly made in God's image. That my story is not over, and that there is still so much to write about. I laugh when I an told I need another surgery because I see it as a challenge to show that what this world sees as weak I see as another victory for my story. I have had 10 major surgeries, and I know there is another on the horizon, but I will overcome it too. You see I have learned that you decide how you want to look at your life. You can choose to see it as the end, or make the choice to start a new story and make new goals, and new adventures. I choose joy, and to overcome whatever obstacles I face!”

“I choose joy, and to overcome whatever obstacles I face!”