Blog

If it all had never happened

Mike Savicki is a very kindhearted man. He is a husband, a veteran, an athlete, a teacher and a small business owner. He is also a father to the beautiful Caroline Savicki 👑, a.k.a. me

Part of his business, Afterburner Communications, is a website to share the stories he writes, and about his life and accomplishments. All before this, he was in the Navy as a pilot, but never got to finish his flight school because he broke his neck and got paralyzed from his chest down. So now he is in a wheelchair and has accomplished so much. 

So today I interviewed him, and he said if he could go back and tell himself when he was younger, the first thing he would say was, “don’t dive into the ocean on November 3, 1990 because you’ll know what’s gonna happen, you’ll break your neck.” 

He would also say, “your life is going to be pretty amazing and the world is going to be good so try your best, do your hardest, be friendly to as many people as you can, and be confident, and always, always, always say thank you and I love you.”

The second question I asked him was, how would you feel 20 years earlier if you knew you were going to break your neck and get paralyzed? He said he would do more things before he got hurt like he would ride his bike across the country, he would learn how to be a really good surfer, and he might try to climb a mountain. These are all things he would love to do, but he can’t do now. 

The third question that has nothing related to the story was, did he know how to surf before he got hurt? He said he could, but he was really bad at it, but he was good at windsurfing. Windsurfing is sailing on a surfboard. That’s kind of like a paddleboard with a sail.

If he could go back in time and change the day that he broke his neck, what would he do? “I would wake up the same way. I would do all the things I did in the morning, and the only thing I would do differently is not run into the ocean and dive under a wave,” he said.

My last question was how would you feel if you could still walk today? I had already interviewed him once and asked him that question, but he had thought about it more and he said he would feel pretty amazing. He said, “I wonder how my life would be. I would be doing some pretty different things.” He said he would put me on his shoulders and carry me around all over the place, and he would go for a long walk on the beach. 

Overall I am very glad I interviewed him and got this article written all in one day.

I just want him to know that I love him and he is the best dad in the world.

Love,

 Caroline Anna Savicki

The story writer and photographer