I tried moving my feet but they wouldn’t move.

For the first time in my life, walking was no longer automatic. It was something I had to think about.

What was happening?

Have I been an ingrate? Maybe life wanted me to do more.

How do I get home? I have a flight to catch. I have to be at work and here I am – stuck. How did I get here? All I remember was hitting a wall in the dark and twisting my ankle but I was asleep so, it made no sense.

I was surrounded by friends who were really helpful. They shared my pain, took me to the airport and carried me to the point beyond which they couldn’t go through.

My friend, whom I’ll call A, understood what needed to be done and had already gotten someone to wheel me in. Who knew the day would come when I’d need a wheelchair to move? I’m not saying wheelchairs are bad but I just never thought I’d need them because walking was just something I never had to think about.

However, things are different. I now have to think about walking.

A said goodbye and the person pushing me came in. I was the last to board the plane and when we landed, I was the last to get off. Everyone walked past me and moved as though they had somewhere important to go. I used to be one of them but now, I couldn’t move without help. The pain was excruciating and unbearable.

Everyone passed me by and as they did, it made me wonder what I had always taken for granted. Before now, I was part of those that would walk briskly and run through airports. And now? I couldn’t move without help.

Life has a way of humbling us. The things we do without thinking are privileges not guarantees. And the people who move differently are not lesser than us, they’ve just been forced to notice what we overlook.

It was the crash course I didn’t know I needed to understand the complexities of life.

Thankfully, I got back on my feet a few weeks later.But I didn’t walk the same way again. Not because I couldn’t but because now, I knew what it meant to have to think about it.

I thought about gratitude. Not the automatic kind, but the deliberate kind. The one that changes how you walk once you’re back on your feet because we never really know what it takes to walk in another person’s shoes.