00:00 I'm dying. I'm dying. I know I am. I have to get to the hospital right now.
00:04 I started to realize that there was something really, really wrong.
00:07 My heart was beating out of my chest. I was so shaky. I was so weak.
00:12 And I realized that I couldn't feel my feet.
00:16 When I glanced to the floor, I saw that my feet were purple.
00:21 And when I glanced at my hands, I saw that my hands were purple.
00:24 And when I looked at my reflection in the mirror,
00:26 I saw that my nose, my chin, and my cheeks were purple as well.
00:31 I was dying. And I knew it. I immediately began to panic.
00:36 My heart was beating out of my chest. I was seeing tunnel vision.
00:38 I was sicker than I could ever explain.
00:41 As I lay in a coma, the doctors diagnosed me with something called meningococcal meningitis,
00:46 which is a vaccine-preventable blood infection.
00:49 I was given less than a 2% chance of living and immediately put on life support.
00:53 We have no idea how I got it.
00:54 So for all I know, somebody could have sneezed on me when I was in the elevator at work,
00:59 and maybe that's how I got it.
01:01 But due to this little microscopic bacteria,
01:05 over the course of two and a half months, I ended up losing my spleen.
01:09 I lost my kidney function. I lost the hearing in my left ear.
01:14 And due to the septic shock that my body went into,
01:16 I ended up losing both of my legs below the knees.
01:20 My life changed like that.
01:24 I went from being a normal 19-year-old without a care in the world
01:28 to now relying on machines, mechanics, and medical innovation in order to live,
01:33 and in order to even survive.
01:36 And I thought the worst was over.
01:40 That is, until I saw my new legs for the very first time.
01:44 They were these bulky blocks of metal with pipes bolted together for the ankles.
01:49 I don't know who designed these feet, you know.
01:51 They try to make them look real,
01:52 but they look like they were straight out of the plumbing department of Home Depot.
01:56 They were hideous.
01:57 And with my mom by my side and just tears streaming down our faces,
02:01 I strapped on these chunky legs and I stood up.
02:05 I was absolutely physically and emotionally broken.
02:09 The thought of living the rest of my life with these hunks of hardware as my legs
02:14 was depressing and overwhelming.
02:18 And little did I know at that time that my biggest loss, my legs,
02:21 would eventually become my biggest asset.
02:24 But I think as soon as I got so sick and tired of being sick and tired,
02:30 I knew that in order to move forward with my life,
02:33 I had to somehow learn how to let go of the old Amy
02:38 and somehow learn to embrace the new Amy.
02:41 And that is when it dawned on me that the old Amy,
02:46 I don't know, was maybe five foot five,
02:48 but the new Amy, she could be six foot tall.
02:53 I could be as tall as I wanted
02:56 or I could be as short as I wanted depending on who I was dating at the time.
03:01 It was times like these that first prompted me to ask myself
03:05 if my life were a book and I was the author of that book,
03:11 how would I want this story to go?
03:14 I saw myself walking gracefully
03:18 and I saw myself somehow helping other people through my journey
03:22 and I saw myself snowboarding again.
03:25 And I didn't just see myself carving down this mountain of powder,
03:28 I visualized it so strongly that I could actually feel it.
03:34 I could feel the wind against my face and the beat of my racing heart
03:40 as if it was happening in that very moment.
03:43 And that passion and that fire that I felt inside,
03:46 that is when a new chapter of my life began.
03:51 I was back up on a snowboard four months after losing my legs,
03:54 although things didn't go quite as expected.
03:57 I hit this bump completely out of control and I fell
04:01 and my goggles went one way and my beanie went the other way
04:05 and my legs still attached to my snowboard went flying down the mountain.
04:11 And meanwhile, I was still sitting up on top of the mountain
04:16 completely embarrassed. I wasn't expecting that at all.
04:19 And actually I heard a lady scream from the chairlift,
04:23 which I'm sure she racked up years of therapy bills.
04:27 Anyways, I remember I was just so discouraged, you know,
04:31 and I could have easily thought, "Well, this is impossible.
04:34 I obviously can't snowboard with two prosthetic legs."
04:37 But I thought, "If I could figure out a way
04:40 to get my legs to move in the way that I need them to,
04:45 and if I can figure out a way to keep these detachable body parts
04:48 attached to my body, then I would be able to do this again."
04:52 And that's when I learned that the obstacles and the challenges in our
04:55 lives can only do two things. One, stop us dead in our tracks,
05:00 or two, force us to get creative. So I decided to make a pair myself.
05:07 My leg maker and I, we put random parts together
05:11 and we made a pair of feet that I could snowboard in.
05:13 And believe it or not, these babies actually worked like a charm.
05:17 But it was these legs and the best 21st birthday gift that I could ever receive,
05:21 a new kidney from my dad, that allowed me to follow my dreams
05:25 and to snowboard again. And then I went on to be the first ever
05:29 female to win a bronze medal in Paralympic snowboarding.
05:35 Thank you. I've learned it's that change and it's that challenge that forces us
05:41 to figure out what we're really made of. It makes us
05:45 dig deep. It makes us find our fire. And it makes us get creative.
05:51 Because that's the only way to reach beyond the reality of this current
05:55 moment, is by accepting what is, but most
05:58 importantly daydreaming of what could be. If you asked me today if I
06:03 would ever want to change my situation, I would tell you guys no.
06:09 Because my legs haven't disabled me. If anything, they
06:13 enabled me. They forced me to rely on my imagination
06:17 and to believe in the possibilities. And that's why I believe that our
06:21 imaginations are huge tools for breaking through all the borders in
06:25 our lives. Because in our minds, we can do anything and we can be
06:31 anything. It's believing in our dreams and facing our fears head on that allows
06:37 us to live our lives beyond our limits.
06:42 [Music]
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