Bouncing Back When Life Takes a Hard Left Turn | John B. Grimes

In this special episode, John B. Grimes is back with My Hero 360 with a special announcement: his book is being published tomorrow, February 7. In the book, titled “Destiny Is Debatable,” John shares his experience with bacterial meningitis and how it changed the trajectory of his life. He shares lessons learned and offers inspirational advice for people navigating a challenging time in their life. 

Watch John’s original episode on My Hero 360 to learn more about his story. 

Key Highlights: 

• Hear about why John B. Grimes wrote this memoir of his experience with bacterial meningitis and subsequent vision loss. 
• Learn how the writing experience was cathartic for John and brought back memories from 28 years ago. 
• Be inspired by John’s sentiment that living is “an act of defiance” after surviving something so few do. 
• Hear how to buy the book and connect more with John. 

Transcript:

Voiceover:

Welcome to My Hero 360, a community that features the voices of our heroes who bring awareness and advocacy for health conditions.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

John Grimes, welcome back to My Hero 360.

John B. Grimes:

Hey, thanks so much for having me once again. Glad to be back.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

As a reminder for our viewers, you are one of our first heroes, so we appreciate that, sharing your story on My Hero 360 about how you survived bacterial meningitis and subsequently experienced vision loss. So thanks again for coming back to speak with us. We are very excited to talk about a special announcement. So you have a book coming out. It debuts tomorrow, February 7th. It’s called Destiny Is Debatable, the same name as your podcast. The release date is important to you. It’s 28 years after you arrived at the hospital and nearly died from bacterial meningitis. So what are the top three things that you hope people who read this book take away from it?

John B. Grimes:

Well, I think probably number one is that just because your life takes a hard left turn, your story is not done being told. And it did take me quite some time to write this and understand that as well. And I think it also talks a lot about keep moving, don’t stop. Waiting for clarity, for me at least in my experience, didn’t help anything. I just needed to act and keep moving. And that’s probably the biggest lesson I guess maybe I personally took away from it. And that maybe number three, you asked for three. Gosh, there’s lots of them. I would say also that it’s not about bouncing back when your life takes that hard left turn. It’s about rebuilding something meaningful with what you have now.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

That sounds really incredible. Inspiring thoughts for really anyone going through anything in life. So that’s really amazing. You say, “Survival isn’t the end of the journey. It’s just the beginning.” Can you describe what you mean by that?

John B. Grimes:

That’s a sentence or a quote that I found to be very true for my particular case, but I think it applies to just about anything in life. Literally survival for me was passive. I was in a coma for eight days and doctors and medicine were keeping me alive and ultimately are the reason I survived. There were some people involved and lots of other factors, but for me, I was passive in the process. I was unconscious, didn’t know anything that was happening. So survival for me was the easy part. It’s life after that … That’s where things get interesting. So survival was easy. Living is kind of like an act of defiance to get around things and adapt. And that’s kind of where the work begins is after survival.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

Yeah, absolutely. And as I mentioned, the book is coming out 28 years after this event that changed the course of your life. What was it like to write this book and relive all of those emotions you experienced at the time? And then since then, as you’ve navigated a reality that you didn’t necessarily expect for yourself?

John B. Grimes:

Yeah, I would say extreme catharsis is probably the highlight there because it was like an archeological dig to go through all of the … As you said, it’s been 28 years, which is a long time. And I laughed at some things of just about how unprepared I was for lots of things that have happened. I also laugh because I think you’ve got to have a sense of humor about some things that sometimes go right and sometimes didn’t. And pride, I learned a lot about myself and some things that I had forgotten that even happened and reconnected with lots of people from the story, from my journey. I love connection. I love connecting with people. So I rekindled some old friendships. And I mean, it was amazing to go through the whole process, but it was difficult in times. And some people that are in the story are no longer with us. And so it’s happy and it’s sad, but all in all, it’s tremendous. And it was a very enriching experience for me. It was amazing.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

So have you been working on this for a while or kind of writing it bit by bit? Or did you decide you were going to write this book and sit down and do that?

John B. Grimes:

Oh no. I’ve been writing this book for probably, I don’t know, maybe 28 years.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

Wow.

John B. Grimes:

Quite literally. I think we’re all writing our own stories and I’m still here to tell mine. So my story technically is still being written. But in this particular case, it’s about a 20-year snapshot of after meningitis. It is a snapshot in time. And I think I’ve been writing it for close to 25 years after I decided I was going to, but I’ve been through all kinds of iterations and all kinds of different methods. And turned out I’m not really a very good writer at the beginning, but I don’t expect to win the Nobel Peace Prize for this, but I can tell you that I am a very good writer relative to where I started anyway throughout the process. And lots of connections that I’ve made in the last five to six years have really propelled me into a much better writing position than I was when I started. And once I got into a groove, things just really started clicking and it started going real fast at the end. So it was a long journey, but so was my life.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

Yeah, that’s amazing. I’m sure the message is really what’s going to connect with people, not necessarily the prose, but that’s really amazing that you made this happen. So it sounds like an incredible book. I personally can’t wait to read it. Where can people buy the book and learn more about you?

John B. Grimes:

It’s available on February 7th, so tomorrow be available. And the best place to go would be to Amazon. You can go to johnbgrimes.com and there’ll be a link to the book there and all kinds of information about the book. There are some reviews and things available as well, so you can see what other people have said about it. And the best place to get it is on Amazon. So Destiny Is Debatable or johnbgrimes.com. I’m also on LinkedIn and other social media platforms. I’d like to connect with you there too.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

Amazing. Well, everyone should go out and buy that book. And John, thank you again for coming on My Hero. And we wish you lots of luck on the book release and congratulations on writing this incredible story.

John B. Grimes:

Thank you so much. My pleasure to be here.

–

Connect with John Grimes:  
https://www.instagram.com/johnbgrimes     
https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbgrimes/  
https://x.com/ambblind  

Websites:  
https://podcast.johnbgrimes.com/ 
https://destinyisdebatable.com/  

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