When life presented challenges, Shane Bare treated them just like another rep at the gym.
Looking back at life, challenges have presented opportunities for the Avery County native and current Roan Mountain resident. Each day, Bare, who is paralyzed from the waist down, doesn’t let no enter his vocabulary and continues to move forward by turning a love of the gym into a story of motivation for others.
“I thought everything was great at that time. Born and raised in Avery County, worked with the Department of Correction in North Carolina. I even thought about going into law school but that didn’t really pan out. I realized I had big boy bills to pay,” Bare, who continues to keep an entertaining sense of humor for friends and family, said with a chuckle.
Bare was able to reconnect with a former high school flame in 2009 and the two were expecting their first child in July of 2010. But tragedy struck during the day of labor when doctors discovered the child did not have a heartbeat.
“It really affected us,” he said. “It really just turns your world upside down.”
Less than a year later, life threw another curveball to Bare. What was supposed to be a regular commute to work turned into another life-changing encounter.
“May 21, 2011, I’ll always remember it,” Bare said. “It was around 9 a.m. in the morning and I was on my way to work. A deer comes out in the middle of the road and I end up hitting an embankment. My body absorbed the contact.”
Bare discovered from doctors that he would be paralyzed from the waist down following the incident.
“It wasn’t even a year ago, you lose a life. Then you hear the words, ‘you will never walk again’ … My mind was a blur. I couldn’t wrap myself around it,” he explained.
Obstacles turned into weight plates. The loss of life, the loss of his legs, depression, anxiety … as the days went by, so the addition of weight plates to the proverbial weight bar of life.
And much like his motto, Bare decided to adapt and repped his way through the negatives instead of staying down in the dumps.
“I got into handcycling, but it was getting a little much because I was having trouble doing things by myself,” he said. “I got to the point I wanted to start lifting weights to help make things easier for me. It started off as a hobby, but man it has become an obsession now. Everything just started to click. All the issues, the depression … I had the chance to focus and put my attention into something I love.”
But as the joy grew, some obstacles did present themselves.
“The gym I go to wasn’t handicapped accessible. You had to go up the stairs,” Bare said. “So each day, one of my buddies would carry my wheelchair up the steps and I’d lift myself up. It’s been a challenge, but the gym is actually working on putting in an elevator now.”
Just like any obstacle before, Bare continued to keep a clear mind and positive attitude about it all.
“That’s sort of the motto I’ve been going with, ‘adapt or die’. That’s really what it comes down to. You either adapt and make the best out of things or you let the depression get to you,” Bare said. “I always want to keep things positive and I always want to keep a sense of humor about things.
“You can ask anybody, I’ll be the first one to make a wheelchair joke. I can tell it does take some people off guard, but you have to fun with life,” Bare said with a chuckle.
And the joy was recently spread by friends and family.
Shane’s story started to rally the community of Roan Mountain and North Carolina. Thanks to the spearheaded efforts of friends LaShea and Laurie, friends and family of Bare were able to raise over $6,000 to install tracts on the bottom of his wheelchair to allow accessibility on gravel and other rougher terrain. While roughly $2,000 came from a GoFundMe page from family members, baked goods provided by Lashae helped raised $4,400, which was presented to Bare inside a special-made Deadpool cake.
“Man, Deadpool is my spirit animal,” Bare said with a laugh. “That day really took me by surprise. I cut through the cake and saw the bag of money. That, with what they raised online, was able to by the Freedom Tract for the wheelchair. It’s been amazing and I can’t say enough about them doing that for me.”
As the days go on, so does the love of weightlifting. As Bare reaches ever closer to a 615 bench press, he added his goal is to look at entering different competitions, even the possibility of becoming a paralympian.
“That’s definitely a goal of mine,” he said. “I’m 36 years old. I want to get the most out of my body now while I can.”
Through it all, Bare added that he hopes his story can inspire others to overcome obstacles in life.
“Bad things are going to happen, and I wish I didn’t have to say that,” he said. “But they do. I would encourage someone going through a tough time to find an outlet. For my situation, I went to weightlifting, but it can something as simple as reading. Never let depression get to you. No matter how rough things are, they will get better.”