3rd Place Features
Elmarie O'Brien, Coláiste an Chraoibhín, Fermoy
Drive
To the lucky person who has stumbled across my article, welcome to my world.
Firstly I shall introduce you to me and my story. Without the story I share, you would be
introduced to a completely different person. For the record I would like to think that she
wouldn’t have a scratch on this fine strong woman you are greeted by today. So with
that firmly settled let us continue…
On the 2nd of November the world was blessed with one of the coolest babies to walk to
earth – me! Like the majority of us I was born too, with 4 supreme limbs, a face with all
the features and the extra bits that make us the amazing monkeys we are! Then 22
months later God realised that I was too awesome and wasn’t struggling on the baby
obstacles that most babies struggle with, being that I walked 2 months before the
regular baby did. I think that’s pretty impressive if I do say so myself! God doing his best
to be fair to all came to the conclusion that he had to give this great solider a harder
battle which meant he had to limit my “supreme” tools! When the word was final he got
my brother to do the honours, so he hopped onto the lawn mower and of with the arm!
The left arm was the chosen one and like that it was chopped up like a blade of grass. I
looked up to the sky that fine Autumn day, while munching on a juicy apple in the other
hand and said classy way of getting the job done my good lord. Challenge accepted. I will
take on whatever life has to throw at me and as for the hardest obstacles; I will destroy
them with all I’ve got and scream Try me! While I’m at it because that would make it
seem very epic indeed!!
So from a young I was always giving more, more effort, more energy, more will. Having
one upper limb really pulled on my brain power, having to think outside the box to be
able to handle some physical challenges, saying that most things came natural to me,
what can I say! But It pushed me to what I thought my limits were… so there I was
sitting on top of my ‘limits’ looking pretty, the wind blowing through my golden locks
and found I had so much more in my to give, hell yeah I’m tired but why not keep
pushing if I knew I had it in me? My dear friend I don’t believe there are limits! They’re
just imaginary boundaries you may set yourself because we fear our best is not going to
be good enough and we wouldn’t be able to face that kind of disappointment, or maybe
that we need save our 110% energy for the more important day? There is no better day
or time then now time! There is no such thing as living in the future (that’s just in case
you were not aware!) so let now be your time and go for it like a bull to a red flag!
I feel that having lost my arm has given me an incredible drive. It would be my pleasure
to rub some of this onto others and inspire them to get even better than their best. This
may seem strange, but in some way little me as a baby to be so strong and to take a hit
like I did, recover so quickly and to be able to have a smile spread across my tiny face
among the panic, tears, worry, rush of ambulances, nurses and doctors, inspires me. It
inspires me to give my ultimate best, to never give into the easy option, to push myself
and surpass all expectations of what others have of me and importantly my own
expectations of myself. The only person you are competing against is yourself. I believe
there was a reason God chose me and that’s because he knew I could take. He gives his
hardest battles to his strongest soldiers and I prove to myself and him every day that his
decision was correct.
Judges’ Citation
There are many ways that our third runner-up Elmarie O’Brien could have told her unique
story of losing a limb. A deep reflective tone could have worked or perhaps she toyed with
the idea of presenting the factual realities.
Instead, she chose humour and her award here today proves the success of this alternative
approach. As a reader, you adopt her carefree pace as she speaks of her ‘awesomeness’,
smiling as she welcomes you to her world. Her humour makes you unsuspecting. That is
until she plummets you into the real crux of her story-a 22 month old baby, a lawnmower
and a lost limb. Elmarie’s story is totally unexpected and stops you in your tracks. She is an
excellent storyteller who has created a piece where her character and humour come
shining through.