My name is Nicole, and I was born with Spina Bifida [1] Myelomeningocele and Hydrocephalus which means I’ve had to endure a life long series of surgeries [2], 18 to be exact. Anyone who has spent five minutes in my presence knows how much I idolize country music legend Garth Brooks. It has been 14 years since he went into retirement and he last performed in 2001. Although I had a great opportunity to meet him just before he announced his retirement, this special night in October of 2014 took things to a whole new level for me and solidified why I am a huge fan of this man. It was October 17th, and my mother and a couple of my friends traveled to Jacksonville, Fl., to see him in concert. Jacksonville was one of his first few stops on his comeback tour. I didn’t know it at the time, but, an hour before the concert was supposed to begin my friend received a phone call from Garth Brooks’ manager saying he would agree to meet me.
NOTE: I wasn’t 100% sure this was going to happen, but I had very high hopes.
After waiting about 30 minutes in the arena hallway, we were greeted by none other than Garth Brooks himself. We then went into his dressing room where we took pictures and chatted amongst one another. Throughout our conversation, I expressed to him that my two favorite songs by him were ‘The Dance’ and ‘Standing Outside The Fire’; both for similar yet different reasons. As we were wrapping up our visit with him he asked me if there was anything else he could do for me and I just simply asked him for a hug. Without a reply he began to get on his knees to accommodate my wheelchair and proceeded to give me a hug. After he finished giving me a hug, we made our way into the arena and we were met by his tour manager. He handed out gift bags to each of us from Garth himself. They included numerous goodies such as shirts and a poster – I had previously purchased a poster as soon as we made our way into the arena and when we were chatting backstage he took it upon himself to graciously sign one of the two posters for me. About half way through the 3-4 hour concert, he begins singing ‘The Dance’ and I just melted because that was one of my two favorite songs. After singing 2 or 3 more of his songs he then starts to say the following words: “This next song is for a powerful girl named Nicole, this song is called, ‘Standing Outside The Fire’” At that moment the tears started flowing from my eyes and everything around me just stopped for the next three plus minutes. I couldn’t actually recall anything after he announced my name in front of the entire audience. This night put everything in perspective for me: every surgery I’ve had to go through and all the worries that my parents had for me while growing up. Furthermore, that night proved to me that I wasn’t a statistic. I was a human being just like everyone else. I have goals, dreams and things that I want to experience in life. I will not let one thing like having Spina Bifida keep me from achieving any of those things that I wish for myself, or others who wish the same things. I will admit, it’s been a tough journey but if you have an amazing support system, like I do, then you will be able to go through anything that life puts in front of you. And, you will bulldoze over it and move on to something bigger and better because you are meant for bigger and better things despite what minor setbacks you may face. I’ve learned you have to get through the tough times to experience the brighter things, and the bigger the risks and obstacles you face in life, the bigger reward you will receive from life.
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