When I Fell (How I Rerouted My Life and Found Strength in a Severed Spine)

When Michael Murphy was 21, he fell off a roof at college and landed flat on his back, severing his spine. They say that nobody understands their own traumatic injury just after it happens—but Michael did. Every person falls. They fall short in school, in life, in work, and in love. Their lives sometimes feel punctuated by those downfalls—the rejection letters, the unrequited love, the missed promotions, the life altering traumas. Everyone falls. But then what?

When I Fell is a true tale of going from abled, to disabled, to empowered. It combines the story surrounding Michael’s recovery with the science of resiliency and thriving—what psychologists are now calling Posttraumatic Growth (PTG)—to teach readers how to hit home runs when life throws them curves. Befitting new mainstream acceptance for disabilities, When I Fell is as much a memoir as it is a message. It features the five principles established by Drs. Tedeschi and Calhoun—the pioneers who coined the phrase in the 1990’s—for scientific validation to bring PTG further into the public eye.