Jake was alone pushing his wheelchair in one of the parks in the city of Miami, today was his day off from work, and he just wanted to spend his day resting himself.
Normally whenever he has a day off, he likes to go to the basketball court, and relax his mind by throwing shots at the hoop. This was his way of relaxing.
Although Jake was handicapped after his legs were paralyzed after an accident, he ended up finding his love for basketball.
Today was different though, today was the day he finally turned forty years old, for his special day he also has a special schedule to follow.
First, he spent the morning in the cemetery paying respect to his parents starting with his mother who died whilst he was only the young age of twenty-five.
Jake doesn't remember his father, therefore his mother was the only person he loved in his life, his father died when Jake was only two.
After his father's death his mother Eva became very depressed, she was still young, when she was widowed she was only 20 years old, but with her was Jake, she had to raise her son by herself and could only get a job as a waitress in a restaurant near her house.
Eva felt guilty about leaving her child at home but she had to work to support the both of them, even so, Jake rarely saw his mother cry, especially while he was in his adolescence, she always had a big smile on her face whenever she was in front of him.
Jake was always a very positive person in his life, but it seems that he wasn't so lucky, when Jake was young he always liked to go on runs, as he didn't play any kind of sport because his neighborhood didn't have many facilities, and Jake also didn't think he had the talent for it anyway.
After he grew up, Jake got taller; he was always called in to play several sports, especially basketball, but he was always placed as a Center because of his height but he couldn't play that well.
The only thing Jake was able to do was run, he liked to run as fast as he could through the park, and feel the wind hitting his face and the adrenaline going through his veins every time he ran great distances.
When he grew older Jake, was very popular at school with his blond hair, brown eyes, and tall body with some muscles that he acquired from the runs, many girls wanted to go out with him.
So Jake, like every normal teenager, drifted farther and farther away from his mother, and made new friends but just as he got older Jake walked away from this life to do some part-time jobs to help his mother out.
Luckily he was aware of the difficulties his mother had to go through to keep the house, so Jake rarely asks for any kind of toys, or clothes.
After he was finishing high school Jake decided to try a college entrance examination to see if he could get into a university, that was always his mother's dream for him. His intelligence was above average, and he always had good grades at school. Jake was confident in getting the scholarship.
When he was taking a bus to go take the college entrance exam a runaway truck that suddenly appeared hitting the bus that Jake was traveling on causing an unfortunate accident.
Most passengers who were on the bus including the driver ended up dying, but Jake ended up having a bit more luck and he survived but ended up crippled with a broken spine and paralyzed legs.
So Jake had to spend several months in the hospital to recover from the injuries he suffered in the accident, and eventually missed the chance to take the entrance exam, and get into college.
By staying in the hospital so long Jake ended up getting a little depressed, but when he saw his mother who always came to visit, he noticed Eva was pale and seemed to have lost some light in her eyes, despite this, she forced a smile to cheer Jake up.
Jake managed to overcome his depression and left the hospital with his uplifting attitude, mostly because of his mother's encouragement, as Jake could no longer go to a university he decided to look for a job to live and help his mother with living expenses.
After a few years, Jake's mentality recovered and he even got a job at a small accounting firm in the center of the town.
Jake was recovering and starting to get along with everything at 22, that was how his days went by.
But when he was 25, one day his life began to fall apart again, his mother who seemed to be recovering along with him died suddenly while he was asleep.
The doctors said that depression led to her death which was a big shock to Jake, after all, she never cried, and always smiled in front of him, therefore, he could never imagine that his mother who was trying so hard was on the verge of death.
After thinking it over, Jake realized that his mother never recovered from his father's death over 23 years ago, she just pretended right in front of him, or it was Jake who didn't want to realize the reality of the situation.
After all, she was always under a lot of pressure to start working more after his father's death, she often had to work overtime and suffer from the stress of her boss's scolding and the problems that the customers caused.
Eva never had friends to talk to, instead of telling Jake she always forced herself to put up a strong front for her son, and she always kept everything in her heart without being able to vent.
During the period the wounds on her heart began to heal Jake's accident occurred, and her son was crippled, Eva had also heard from the doctors that Jake was impotent, and wouldn't be able to have children in the future.
Eva felt responsible; the feeling wouldn't leave with Jake around as a reminder.
Eva knew that Jake was aiming to get a college scholarship, now he had to stay in the hospital, so he missed that chance.
So Eva's depression only got worse, and now it was worse than ever because she had no one to lean on, her son Jake in her perspective must also be depressed, so she kept this pain in her heart, and then when she saw her son had recovered and could move on without her, Eva relaxed and eventually died.
Once again Jake had to suffer and ended up with situational depression, more so because his mother was suffering while living, and now that she died he could rest, Jake kept his thoughts optimistic and recovered from his depression gradually.
Jake was not the kind of person to blame fate and life, he thought things were happening because they had to happen, so he was good at understanding and seeing the hopeful things in life.
Jake continued living his life, a few years after his mother's death Jake met a friend at his office who liked to play basketball in their free time.
This friend of Jake had played basketball in college, and although he didn't have the chance to be professional he was still quite skilled and called Jake to do some basketball training with him.
Jake told him that since he was 1.85m tall and had a body trained by years of running in high school, he had been called in to play basketball matches although he wasn't very talented.
Plus this friend said that even though Jake a wheelchair, there were things he could try like two-pointers or three-pointers sitting in the wheelchair, Jake could also train passing with wall passes or just playing with the ball that guaranteed him better ball control.
So Jake tried to do so and discovered that he had talent and could possibly have been a good basketball player if he wasn't paralyzed from the waist down.
Just that the position he'd tried to play in school wasn't right for him, hence the coach shouldn't have put him there just because of his height.
Moreover, after having to suffer from the accident, Jake has lost the prime time to train himself and have a chance to play basketball professionally. The thought made Jake regretful, however, at least he found something he was passionate about. Nevertheless, he wouldn't slack off at work because of his newly found talent.
This also opened the possibility of Jake doing several other things even without the ability to use his legs anymore, being able to have fun or learn something, until he earns some money allowing him to finally live worry-free.