By Scott Brinton
At the time, Petrocelli was 24, a teacher and football coach. He had grown up in Brooklyn, gone to college out West and wound up in Texas.
Petrocelli was devastated. His college sweetheart was dead. Rescue workers needed a half-hour to pull Ava¹s body from under the car. Petrocelli wondered whether to continue living. But, he said, the students at the high school where he taught gave him hope ‹ and the will to live.
Petrocelli was injured in the crash, and spent three weeks in the hospital. Day in, day out, students ‹ totaling in the hundreds ‹ visited him. More than 1,000 students attended his wife¹s funeral.
³For three weeks, they made me realize one thing: my life is worth living,² Petrocelli said.
He took that lesson to heart, and became a nationally known inspirational speaker who addresses some 200,000 students at high schools across the country each year. He also penned ³10 Seconds: Will Change Your Life Forever² and ³Triumph Over Tragedy² about his life-altering experience.
On March 15, Petrocelli visited 11th- and 12th-grade students at Bellmore-Merrick high schools and held a community forum at the Brookside School. The Community Wellness Council of the Bellmores and Merricks sponsored the visit, with a grant provided by state Sen. Charles Fuschillo Jr., a Republican of Merrick.
At the Wednesday-night forum, many participants were students who had heard Petrocelli¹s talk earlier in the day. They brought their parents to hear him as well. Mixing humor and sorrow, he wowed the audience with a powerful presentation that was one part Sunday sermon, one part fatherly wisdom.
Petrocelli drove home the message that each of us is special, and we should never allow others to control how we feel about ourselves, even if they taunt us. ³We cannot control how someone else treats us,² he said.
He said that young people so often get into drugs because they want to douse their sorrow and anger. But that only lasts so long.
Petrocelli also spoke at length about the power of forgiveness. ³You know the biggest problem in this world?² he asked. ³People don¹t know how to forgive. I choose if I take offense or not.²
