Pattie Rakvica has a bucket list. It’s a list of things she’d like to do at some point in her lifetime; dreams that she wants to make a reality, for her own satisfaction and just to say she did it. She wants to skydive, write a children’s book, be a personal trainer, travel to Greece and host her own blog, among others.
So far, she can check two items off her list. One, being a personal trainer, as she recently got her certification online, and two, in regard to blogging, as she will be The Spotlight’s newest blogger at spotlightnews.com with the debut of Blog Ambition.
`I wanted ‘Blonde Ambition’ but Madonna had stolen that from me years ago,` said Rakvica. `Every day’s an opportunity to be better and do better, and everything in life is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so pay attention so you don’t miss out. I want to be a catalyst to wellness, not only for myself but to others.`
Rakvica, 43, of Burnt Hills, wants her blog posts to serve a simple purpose: inspire. She will do that, she said, by `just writing.` In other words, whatever comes to mind could pop up online.
`I hope by writing, people can turn my story into their own positive thing; someone will associate and comment back, and hopefully I can be a catalyst to their wellness, somehow, just as an outlet to talk,` said Rakvica. `I hope they get something out of it. Maybe they’re down and can’t get out of bed and yet they think twice because of something I wrote. At times, some of my blogs will be very silly, because we all need to laugh, too.`
She said she’s always been a `glass half full` type of person, it’s in her spirit; but it wasn’t until a life-changing accident that she really had a reason grab life by the horns and truly live in the moment.
`I always appreciated my life; my family, my son, my husband. But this was my realization it could be taken away in a second, so why wait? If you want to do something ` I’m not saying go out and spend your retirement or anything ` but make a list and check things off. Write it in pencil if you have to, it can be changed, but make it and do it,` said Rakvica.
In July 2009, Rakvica was driving the family Mini Cooper with her son, then 12, when a woman distracted by talking and texting on her cellphone rammed into them at 60 miles an hour, sending their little car spinning into other lanes of traffic and causing them to get hit again. They both walked away from the accident, but the car was crushed right up to the front seats and Rakvica suffered numerous broken bones, a broken neck and a traumatic brain injury that essentially erased her ability to speak properly.
`My speech was slurred, my right hand wasn’t working, I paused a lot and stuttered quite a bit. I went to therapy three to four days a week, cognitive and physical therapy, and it was basically learning how to form letters again I had to learn to speak and it was like being in kindergarten again,` said Rakvica.
The months of therapy were grueling on an emotional level, as she was re-learning everything she knew how to do in the back of her brain, but couldn’t manifest outwardly. To avoid lying in bed everyday, depressed and lamenting `poor me,` she said she turned to writing.
`With all that emotion, I started to write because No.1, people couldn’t understand me because I stuttered or lost my train of thought, so writing became a wonderful outlet for me. I was writing about how I was mad, how I changed and I don’t know how to get back; and then I realized I didn’t know if I wanted to get back,` said Rakvica. `I still don’t consider myself a writer, I just love to write.`
Besides writing, Rakvica also tackled another ambition of hers, which was to become a personal trainer. After 27 hours of online courses and testing, she got her certification and teaches classes at the YMCA in Glenville.
Rakvica also finds herself filling the role of motivational speaker these days, speaking to area college students about the dangers of distracted driving and using her own story of hardship and perseverance to drive her point home. She started a non-profit called Drive to supplement her cause, with more information available at www.driveawareny.com.
When she’s not encouraging fitness, discouraging unsafe driving or writing, she makes and teaches jewelry making, with her business Dragonfly Designs.
Check out Blog Ambition at www.spotlightnews.com/blogs/prakvica.“
