Bobby Petrocelli has shared his story of the worst night of his life thousands of times to young people all over the country. Although it is not easy to relay the painful details time and time again, he feels driven to share a message of forgiveness and to inspire hope in anyone willing to listen.
On Wednesday, Oct. 16, Petrocelli brought his powerful message to Moorestown High School, where students listened intently to his tragic story that ended with a message of forgiveness and hope.
A night that started like any other, with Petrocelli asleep next to his wife, ended in tragedy when he awoke suddenly to find himself in the kitchen of his suburban home, severely injured, confused and disoriented. A drunk driver had lost control of his pickup truck and crashed through Petrocelli’s bedroom, killing his wife and irrevocably changing his life in a matter of seconds.
Although the healing process took time and was not without its dark moments, Petrocelli ultimately decided to move forward and choose forgiveness. He started what he calls the You Matter movement, promoting self worth, and the 10 Seconds organization, a reference to how, like him, a person’s life can change within seconds.
“We use this expression, ‘life happens one day at a time’, but life doesn’t happen one day at a time, it happens one moment at a time. A moment to me is 10 seconds or less, and 10 seconds or less can impact your life drastically,” Petrocelli said.
In his presentations, Petrocelli says he doesn’t go after people’s behaviors, as he believes they are rooted in what he calls someone’s ‘emotional heart condition,’ something different than our physical hearts. Oftentimes when a person’s emotional heart has been wounded, or even broken, they interpret it to mean they don’t matter, they aren’t good enough or what happened to them was their fault.
“I try to help them understand that, no, even though your broken heart haunts you and chases after you to define you, that’s not who you are. More often than not, people allow themselves to be defined by something negative that happened to them,” Petrocelli said.
An analogy he uses to get his point across comes from the movie “The Lion King.” The wise Rafiki smashes young Simba over the head with his stick, and when Simba reacts in pain, Rafiki explains how our past can hurt us, but we have to decide whether we will run from it or learn from it.
He primarily speaks with young people because, as a former high school coach, it was the students at his school who helped pull him from the depths of his own tragedy and lead him to the realization that this terrible event didn’t have to define him, that he could move on and eventually even forgive the person responsible.
“I never forgot that, so the reality of it is, I’m kind of returning the favor,” Petrocelli said.
For more information on Petrocelli, his message and the 10 Seconds organization, visit 10seconds.org.
