1
00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:02,480
Speaker 1: Before I lost my leg, when I saw an antcot,

2
00:00:02,520 --> 00:00:05,800
Speaker 1: immediately feel sorry for them. But now when I'm walking

3
00:00:05,840 --> 00:00:08,000
Speaker 1: down the street like walking my dog, I don't even

4
00:00:08,039 --> 00:00:11,160
Speaker 1: think about having a prosthetic leg. So the whole experience

5
00:00:11,360 --> 00:00:24,720
Speaker 1: it's crazy, but it's gotten me to where I am today.

6
00:00:28,080 --> 00:00:31,000
Speaker 2: Hey everyone, Emily a body here. You are listening to

7
00:00:31,160 --> 00:00:35,000
Speaker 2: episode three hundred and thirty one of Hurdle, a wellness

8
00:00:35,040 --> 00:00:38,559
Speaker 2: focused podcast where I talk to inspirational people about everything

9
00:00:38,560 --> 00:00:42,080
Speaker 2: from their highest highes and toughest moments to essential tips

10
00:00:42,159 --> 00:00:45,920
Speaker 2: on how to live a healthier, happier, more motivated life.

11
00:00:46,320 --> 00:00:49,440
Speaker 2: We all go through our fair share of hurdles. My

12
00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:52,200
Speaker 2: goal through these discussions is to empower you to better

13
00:00:52,280 --> 00:00:55,360
Speaker 2: navigate yours and move with intention so that you can

14
00:00:55,400 --> 00:00:59,040
Speaker 2: stride towards your own big potential and of course have

15
00:00:59,280 --> 00:01:00,040
Speaker 2: some fun.

16
00:01:00,120 --> 00:01:01,160
Speaker 3: Along the way.

17
00:01:01,800 --> 00:01:05,560
Speaker 2: For today's conversation, episode three thirty one, I am chatting

18
00:01:05,600 --> 00:01:10,640
Speaker 2: with Noel Lambert. She is a two time paralympian and

19
00:01:10,959 --> 00:01:14,319
Speaker 2: you may remember her from Survivor forty three.

20
00:01:14,720 --> 00:01:14,880
Speaker 3: Now.

21
00:01:14,920 --> 00:01:16,760
Speaker 2: I don't know if you remember this, but it was

22
00:01:16,840 --> 00:01:19,759
Speaker 2: Kira Demanto who told me you need to get Noel

23
00:01:19,959 --> 00:01:22,440
Speaker 2: on the show, and that is exactly what I did.

24
00:01:22,600 --> 00:01:24,920
Speaker 2: I was so stoked that we were able to carve

25
00:01:24,959 --> 00:01:28,640
Speaker 2: out the time recently to sit down and Noel could

26
00:01:28,640 --> 00:01:33,440
Speaker 2: tell me all about her story, her journey to accepting

27
00:01:33,480 --> 00:01:36,800
Speaker 2: the things that she cannot change, which was losing her

28
00:01:36,920 --> 00:01:42,160
Speaker 2: leg in a frightening moped accident in twenty sixteen. Noel

29
00:01:42,400 --> 00:01:46,520
Speaker 2: talks about where her mindset was immediately following that tragedy,

30
00:01:46,760 --> 00:01:50,560
Speaker 2: and how she had her sights set on getting back

31
00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:55,280
Speaker 2: to the athletic field playing lacrosse at UMass. Now, there

32
00:01:55,320 --> 00:01:59,520
Speaker 2: are so many refreshing things about this conversation, but Noel's

33
00:01:59,560 --> 00:02:03,240
Speaker 2: perspective that this accident truly happened for her for so

34
00:02:03,600 --> 00:02:09,640
Speaker 2: many different reasons is really truly remarkable. There are so

35
00:02:09,760 --> 00:02:12,480
Speaker 2: many people that could go through something like this and

36
00:02:13,040 --> 00:02:16,840
Speaker 2: fall into a depression, really struggle with getting back into

37
00:02:16,880 --> 00:02:20,400
Speaker 2: the swing of things, integrating back into society. But for

38
00:02:20,600 --> 00:02:23,840
Speaker 2: Noel this was not an option, and so she talks

39
00:02:23,880 --> 00:02:27,920
Speaker 2: about how losing this limb empowered her to chase after

40
00:02:28,040 --> 00:02:33,040
Speaker 2: crazy dreams she never had before, ultimately landing her at

41
00:02:33,080 --> 00:02:36,120
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty and twenty twenty.

42
00:02:35,800 --> 00:02:38,160
Speaker 3: Four Payaralympic Games.

43
00:02:38,200 --> 00:02:40,560
Speaker 2: Noel talks about going for the gold in both the

44
00:02:40,600 --> 00:02:43,640
Speaker 2: long jump and the one hundred meters and falling short.

45
00:02:44,160 --> 00:02:47,840
Speaker 2: What those failures meant to her, what she's excited about

46
00:02:47,919 --> 00:02:51,400
Speaker 2: right now, including her Born to Run foundation, which has

47
00:02:51,520 --> 00:02:56,200
Speaker 2: to date provided more than thirty different individuals with prosthetics

48
00:02:56,240 --> 00:02:59,200
Speaker 2: to go after their big athletic goals.

49
00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:01,560
Speaker 3: Well, I cannot forget to mention.

50
00:03:01,760 --> 00:03:04,320
Speaker 2: Of course we talk a little bit about her time

51
00:03:04,560 --> 00:03:10,240
Speaker 2: on survivor what a crazy chapter in Noelle's story. If

52
00:03:10,240 --> 00:03:12,960
Speaker 2: you're not yet doing so, make sure you're following along

53
00:03:12,960 --> 00:03:15,720
Speaker 2: with Hurdle over on social It's at Hurdle Podcast and

54
00:03:15,760 --> 00:03:18,880
Speaker 2: I'm over at Emily a body. I do want to mention,

55
00:03:19,080 --> 00:03:22,080
Speaker 2: coming off the Thanksgiving holiday, I am so grateful for

56
00:03:22,240 --> 00:03:24,919
Speaker 2: all of you all around the world two hundred and

57
00:03:24,960 --> 00:03:28,840
Speaker 2: twenty plus countries and accounting, and I'm planning for next year.

58
00:03:28,960 --> 00:03:29,799
Speaker 3: So I want to.

59
00:03:29,760 --> 00:03:33,040
Speaker 2: Take your feedback into account. Shoot us an email over

60
00:03:33,080 --> 00:03:37,400
Speaker 2: at Hello at Hurdle dot us with guest names, thoughts

61
00:03:37,440 --> 00:03:39,360
Speaker 2: on what you want to see from the show, and

62
00:03:39,440 --> 00:03:42,400
Speaker 2: of course your listener questions always welcome.

63
00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:54,480
Speaker 3: With that, let's get to it. Let's get to hurdling today.

64
00:03:54,800 --> 00:03:57,520
Speaker 2: I am sitting down with Noah Lambert. She's a two

65
00:03:57,600 --> 00:04:03,600
Speaker 2: time Paralympian. She's also a past contestant on Survivor forty three.

66
00:04:03,880 --> 00:04:06,840
Speaker 1: How we do in Noel, I'm great, you know, happy

67
00:04:06,880 --> 00:04:09,480
Speaker 1: to be here, Happy we can finally nil down a

68
00:04:09,560 --> 00:04:11,360
Speaker 1: date and get this thing going.

69
00:04:11,760 --> 00:04:15,040
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, had the opportunity to watch you at

70
00:04:15,080 --> 00:04:18,480
Speaker 2: the Paralympics in the stud and you know, sometimes good

71
00:04:18,520 --> 00:04:19,320
Speaker 2: things just take time.

72
00:04:19,640 --> 00:04:21,880
Speaker 1: I know, I know. Well when you follow me, I

73
00:04:21,880 --> 00:04:25,360
Speaker 1: thought that was pretty cool and all your accomplishments. I listen,

74
00:04:26,040 --> 00:04:28,040
Speaker 1: it's a lot easier to run and one hundred meter

75
00:04:28,200 --> 00:04:29,919
Speaker 1: dash than it is to run a marathon, so I

76
00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:30,720
Speaker 1: give you a lot of.

77
00:04:30,680 --> 00:04:34,240
Speaker 2: Cred But I am talking to the previous American record

78
00:04:34,279 --> 00:04:36,880
Speaker 2: holder in the one hundred meter dash and the current

79
00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:40,560
Speaker 2: American record holder in the long jump, which are two

80
00:04:41,160 --> 00:04:42,360
Speaker 2: stellar accolades.

81
00:04:42,440 --> 00:04:44,920
Speaker 1: No Al, Yeah, thank you. Well, it's funny because I

82
00:04:44,960 --> 00:04:48,039
Speaker 1: actually just started long jumping in January of this year,

83
00:04:48,160 --> 00:04:51,680
Speaker 1: so I've been able to have incredible success and I

84
00:04:51,760 --> 00:04:55,120
Speaker 1: credit that to coaching alone and the team that I

85
00:04:55,160 --> 00:04:57,719
Speaker 1: had surrounding me leading up to the games.

86
00:04:58,040 --> 00:05:00,000
Speaker 2: Good on you to credit that on coaching a lot,

87
00:05:00,240 --> 00:05:03,200
Speaker 2: because it definitely does take a certain amount of both

88
00:05:03,240 --> 00:05:07,200
Speaker 2: tenacity and of course training. What inspired you to get

89
00:05:07,240 --> 00:05:10,520
Speaker 2: into long jump having been a successful sprinter previously.

90
00:05:11,200 --> 00:05:14,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, So in my classification group, which means above me amputees,

91
00:05:14,960 --> 00:05:17,320
Speaker 1: they only offer one hundred meter in the long jump.

92
00:05:17,440 --> 00:05:19,359
Speaker 1: And so for the first four years that I was

93
00:05:19,400 --> 00:05:21,560
Speaker 1: even doing the sport, I never wanted to do the

94
00:05:21,600 --> 00:05:25,120
Speaker 1: long jump because I didn't understand how people put one

95
00:05:25,200 --> 00:05:28,000
Speaker 1: hundred percent of their trust into something that's not entirely

96
00:05:28,040 --> 00:05:33,239
Speaker 1: theirs because we jump off of our prosthetic blades. But I,

97
00:05:33,320 --> 00:05:35,960
Speaker 1: you know, I have an incredible coach in California who

98
00:05:36,040 --> 00:05:39,240
Speaker 1: is one of the Team USA coaches. I was obviously

99
00:05:39,360 --> 00:05:43,240
Speaker 1: still in Boston working with another coach, and the coach

100
00:05:43,240 --> 00:05:45,280
Speaker 1: in California kept reaching out to me saying, listen, I

101
00:05:45,320 --> 00:05:47,560
Speaker 1: can get you into long jump. I can teach it

102
00:05:47,600 --> 00:05:49,520
Speaker 1: to you. If you could bring that same speed that

103
00:05:49,520 --> 00:05:50,880
Speaker 1: you bring in the one hundred meter, I could just

104
00:05:51,160 --> 00:05:53,039
Speaker 1: teach you how to take off and I'll get you

105
00:05:53,120 --> 00:05:56,920
Speaker 1: jumping over five meters easily. And to put that into contexts,

106
00:05:57,600 --> 00:06:01,040
Speaker 1: before before I started long jumping, only three above me

107
00:06:01,120 --> 00:06:03,720
Speaker 1: ampute women in the entire world have ever jumped over

108
00:06:03,760 --> 00:06:06,239
Speaker 1: five meters it's never been done in the United States.

109
00:06:06,880 --> 00:06:10,040
Speaker 1: There have been a lot of athletes who have you

110
00:06:10,720 --> 00:06:13,559
Speaker 1: had an incredible career and have retired and never touched

111
00:06:13,560 --> 00:06:16,160
Speaker 1: that five meter mark. And I was trying to do

112
00:06:16,200 --> 00:06:18,960
Speaker 1: this in my first season. So when he told me

113
00:06:19,040 --> 00:06:21,240
Speaker 1: that he believes in me and he and he thinks

114
00:06:21,240 --> 00:06:23,880
Speaker 1: that he can get me there, that was all the

115
00:06:24,040 --> 00:06:27,520
Speaker 1: incentive I needed. And I moved out to California in

116
00:06:27,600 --> 00:06:30,040
Speaker 1: January of twenty twenty four leading up to the Games,

117
00:06:30,080 --> 00:06:31,599
Speaker 1: and I got right to work.

118
00:06:31,880 --> 00:06:33,880
Speaker 3: Wow. Wow, it's so wild.

119
00:06:34,040 --> 00:06:37,239
Speaker 2: Is there like an incentive for this coach to want

120
00:06:37,320 --> 00:06:39,400
Speaker 2: to coach you? Like, it's kind of crazy if you

121
00:06:39,400 --> 00:06:41,400
Speaker 2: think about it. To take a step back and be like,

122
00:06:41,640 --> 00:06:44,960
Speaker 2: this random person who I've never met before is very

123
00:06:44,960 --> 00:06:47,760
Speaker 2: persistent about what I should do with both my time

124
00:06:47,880 --> 00:06:48,599
Speaker 2: and my body.

125
00:06:49,040 --> 00:06:53,159
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, his accolades speak alone for himself. He

126
00:06:53,279 --> 00:06:56,120
Speaker 1: is one of the top US Paralympic track and field coaches.

127
00:06:56,600 --> 00:07:00,200
Speaker 1: He coaches all these incredible athletes that come home home

128
00:07:00,200 --> 00:07:04,200
Speaker 1: with Paralympic medals. So when he showed an interest in me,

129
00:07:04,240 --> 00:07:06,719
Speaker 1: I thought it was an honor and I thought, you know,

130
00:07:06,760 --> 00:07:10,520
Speaker 1: this guy knows what he's doing, especially with amputees. I mean,

131
00:07:10,560 --> 00:07:15,000
Speaker 1: you could have incredible coaches, but the tricky thing is

132
00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:18,520
Speaker 1: is finding a coach that knows about prosthetic legs and

133
00:07:18,560 --> 00:07:22,440
Speaker 1: how they work in different alignment because I mean, I

134
00:07:22,440 --> 00:07:24,760
Speaker 1: didn't know a lot of this myself. I learned so

135
00:07:24,920 --> 00:07:27,360
Speaker 1: much in the last year that I knew in the

136
00:07:27,440 --> 00:07:31,920
Speaker 1: last five years, and that was me being honestly sick

137
00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:35,880
Speaker 1: of doing the bare minimum and just reaching out to

138
00:07:35,920 --> 00:07:39,760
Speaker 1: my competitors. I have incredible competitors in Italy who in

139
00:07:39,840 --> 00:07:43,720
Speaker 1: Tokyo sweep the podium, and I saw that they were

140
00:07:43,720 --> 00:07:46,920
Speaker 1: doing different things with their alignment, and they were nice

141
00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:49,920
Speaker 1: enough to let me use their processus out in Italy,

142
00:07:49,960 --> 00:07:51,920
Speaker 1: and I flew out to Italy and I learned so

143
00:07:52,080 --> 00:07:53,840
Speaker 1: much within a span of two weeks. And then so

144
00:07:53,920 --> 00:07:56,520
Speaker 1: once I got my alignment figured out, that's when I

145
00:07:56,600 --> 00:07:59,040
Speaker 1: was thinking, Okay, now I just need the right coach

146
00:07:59,080 --> 00:08:02,200
Speaker 1: if I really want to get into long jump, and

147
00:08:02,440 --> 00:08:05,880
Speaker 1: everything kind of just worked out perfectly. The good thing

148
00:08:05,960 --> 00:08:09,160
Speaker 1: is is he trains at the Tu La Visa Lee

149
00:08:09,240 --> 00:08:12,880
Speaker 1: Training Center, and I've been there for camps and I've

150
00:08:12,880 --> 00:08:15,840
Speaker 1: always seen like him and his group at practice and

151
00:08:16,000 --> 00:08:18,760
Speaker 1: just seen their work ethic and it just inspired me

152
00:08:18,800 --> 00:08:20,120
Speaker 1: and it really made me think, this is what I

153
00:08:20,160 --> 00:08:22,040
Speaker 1: need to do to make this team because I knew

154
00:08:22,160 --> 00:08:23,960
Speaker 1: going into Paris it was going to be a very

155
00:08:24,200 --> 00:08:27,560
Speaker 1: tough team to make because the year prior to that,

156
00:08:28,680 --> 00:08:30,640
Speaker 1: you know, when I did Survivor in twenty twenty two,

157
00:08:30,720 --> 00:08:32,200
Speaker 1: it was very hard to get back in the swing

158
00:08:32,240 --> 00:08:35,400
Speaker 1: of things of competing. And then for twenty twenty three,

159
00:08:35,440 --> 00:08:37,840
Speaker 1: we have World Championships in Paris, and my name was

160
00:08:37,880 --> 00:08:40,960
Speaker 1: not on that list when they called the athletes because

161
00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:43,000
Speaker 1: it was a very difficult team to make, and that's

162
00:08:43,040 --> 00:08:45,080
Speaker 1: what I knew that I needed to make a change.

163
00:08:45,440 --> 00:08:48,160
Speaker 1: It was like that crossroads moment where you can go

164
00:08:48,200 --> 00:08:52,600
Speaker 1: down one road, retires an athlete, go to one Paralympic games,

165
00:08:53,160 --> 00:08:56,920
Speaker 1: you know, play division on lacrosse as an amputee, or

166
00:08:57,000 --> 00:08:59,040
Speaker 1: I could just go down the other roads, twitch everything up,

167
00:08:59,120 --> 00:09:02,840
Speaker 1: turn everything upside, and start from scratch. And of course

168
00:09:02,960 --> 00:09:05,319
Speaker 1: I didn't want to hang up my athletic courage just yet,

169
00:09:05,320 --> 00:09:07,360
Speaker 1: so I went down the harder road and I'm very

170
00:09:07,400 --> 00:09:08,199
Speaker 1: grateful that I did.

171
00:09:08,760 --> 00:09:11,040
Speaker 2: There's so much to impact in what you just explained,

172
00:09:11,040 --> 00:09:12,520
Speaker 2: But the first thing that I want to ask you

173
00:09:12,520 --> 00:09:15,880
Speaker 2: about is why it was so challenging for you after

174
00:09:15,960 --> 00:09:19,120
Speaker 2: coming back from Survivor to get back into the swing

175
00:09:19,160 --> 00:09:19,880
Speaker 2: of things, and.

176
00:09:19,800 --> 00:09:22,400
Speaker 3: When you arrived home were you extremely malnourished.

177
00:09:22,559 --> 00:09:25,240
Speaker 1: Doing the whole experience is one thing, but then coming

178
00:09:25,280 --> 00:09:30,360
Speaker 1: home and trying to adapt to real life again is

179
00:09:30,920 --> 00:09:34,640
Speaker 1: a completely different thing. That everybody who who go on

180
00:09:34,640 --> 00:09:37,080
Speaker 1: that everyone who goes on that show, they don't realize

181
00:09:37,160 --> 00:09:39,480
Speaker 1: because when I went out there, I knew I was

182
00:09:39,520 --> 00:09:41,640
Speaker 1: going to lose weight. I knew it was going because

183
00:09:41,640 --> 00:09:44,240
Speaker 1: I'm not eating anything. But the further you make it,

184
00:09:44,280 --> 00:09:47,480
Speaker 1: the harder it is. And I made it I think,

185
00:09:47,640 --> 00:09:50,280
Speaker 1: you know, nineteen twenty day nineteen or twenty days out

186
00:09:50,280 --> 00:09:53,079
Speaker 1: of twenty six, so I made it pretty far. And

187
00:09:53,520 --> 00:09:56,280
Speaker 1: when I got home, you know, I had lost about

188
00:09:56,320 --> 00:09:58,840
Speaker 1: fifteen to twenty pounds. I don't know the exact number,

189
00:09:58,960 --> 00:10:03,120
Speaker 1: but I I had lost all my muscle. And coming

190
00:10:03,160 --> 00:10:05,360
Speaker 1: back home it was like you want to eat everything

191
00:10:05,400 --> 00:10:08,880
Speaker 1: in sight, because that's what you dream about for all

192
00:10:08,920 --> 00:10:10,800
Speaker 1: those days out there, is what you're gonna eat. And

193
00:10:10,840 --> 00:10:15,480
Speaker 1: then it's like your social awareness is so heightened because

194
00:10:16,080 --> 00:10:18,959
Speaker 1: for however long you're out there, you're trying to analyze

195
00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:21,120
Speaker 1: everybody and trying to come up with a strategy and

196
00:10:21,160 --> 00:10:22,560
Speaker 1: a social game, and then when you get to the

197
00:10:22,600 --> 00:10:25,760
Speaker 1: real world, you don't believe what everybody's telling you. I mean,

198
00:10:25,840 --> 00:10:27,679
Speaker 1: there were amount of the amount of times that I

199
00:10:27,720 --> 00:10:30,680
Speaker 1: asked my fiance, I'm like, wait, are you sure? Wait?

200
00:10:30,720 --> 00:10:32,679
Speaker 1: What do you I would I would second guess him,

201
00:10:32,679 --> 00:10:34,760
Speaker 1: and he would just look at me and be like, yes,

202
00:10:34,840 --> 00:10:39,240
Speaker 1: what are you talking about? And when I started getting

203
00:10:39,240 --> 00:10:41,800
Speaker 1: back into practice, I was having a lot of prosthetic

204
00:10:41,840 --> 00:10:44,320
Speaker 1: issues with the fit because you know, when I lose weight,

205
00:10:44,360 --> 00:10:48,880
Speaker 1: my leg loses weight, and it was just mentally and

206
00:10:48,920 --> 00:10:51,360
Speaker 1: physically tough to get motivated. And then you go when

207
00:10:51,400 --> 00:10:53,480
Speaker 1: you watch the show live, and then you're on such

208
00:10:53,520 --> 00:10:56,600
Speaker 1: a high because you're just watching yourself every single week,

209
00:10:57,120 --> 00:10:59,760
Speaker 1: and then when the season's over, it's like, okay. I mean,

210
00:10:59,840 --> 00:11:03,320
Speaker 1: I I'm very fortunate enough where I turned immediately to

211
00:11:03,600 --> 00:11:06,120
Speaker 1: competing again and getting back in the swing of things.

212
00:11:06,120 --> 00:11:08,320
Speaker 1: But a lot of people go through a very difficult

213
00:11:08,320 --> 00:11:12,200
Speaker 1: time because they're on the highest advise. It's honestly, I mean,

214
00:11:12,200 --> 00:11:14,560
Speaker 1: I don't want to compare the two, but when you

215
00:11:14,600 --> 00:11:17,040
Speaker 1: come home from an Olympic or Paralympic games, like you're

216
00:11:17,040 --> 00:11:18,560
Speaker 1: on such a high and then when you come home

217
00:11:18,559 --> 00:11:19,719
Speaker 1: it's like, oh my god, what am I going to

218
00:11:19,800 --> 00:11:22,840
Speaker 1: do with myself now? It's kind of the same feeling

219
00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:25,200
Speaker 1: because people have to get back into the real world,

220
00:11:25,240 --> 00:11:27,480
Speaker 1: they have to get back into their real jobs. And

221
00:11:28,640 --> 00:11:30,760
Speaker 1: I never wanted to see myself as, you know, a

222
00:11:30,800 --> 00:11:33,760
Speaker 1: reality television star. I was just going out to do

223
00:11:33,840 --> 00:11:36,880
Speaker 1: the experience. And when I was done with it, it

224
00:11:36,920 --> 00:11:39,439
Speaker 1: was it was great because I mean, my life didn't

225
00:11:39,920 --> 00:11:42,120
Speaker 1: change where, you know, I don't need to work anymore.

226
00:11:42,120 --> 00:11:44,200
Speaker 1: I don't need to do any of that, like obviously not.

227
00:11:44,600 --> 00:11:47,440
Speaker 1: And I just wanted to enjoy the enjoy it and

228
00:11:47,520 --> 00:11:49,320
Speaker 1: appreciate the fact that I was able to go on

229
00:11:49,360 --> 00:11:53,400
Speaker 1: the show. And I would say it took me a

230
00:11:53,480 --> 00:11:55,160
Speaker 1: year and a half to two years to get back

231
00:11:55,200 --> 00:11:57,120
Speaker 1: in the swing of things. And I mean a lot

232
00:11:57,120 --> 00:11:59,040
Speaker 1: of that is things that I could have done differently,

233
00:11:59,120 --> 00:12:01,320
Speaker 1: but I was I was very new at it, and

234
00:12:01,360 --> 00:12:04,280
Speaker 1: that's why I didn't make the team for twenty twenty

235
00:12:04,320 --> 00:12:07,679
Speaker 1: three and for World Championships, because I wasn't doing anything

236
00:12:07,720 --> 00:12:10,640
Speaker 1: differently and I really didn't get my you know, my

237
00:12:11,240 --> 00:12:13,640
Speaker 1: body back to the way I wanted it. To and

238
00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:17,000
Speaker 1: I really wasn't motivated, and I was worrying about the

239
00:12:17,040 --> 00:12:20,439
Speaker 1: wrong things. I was blaming others when it was all

240
00:12:20,520 --> 00:12:23,880
Speaker 1: upon myself, And so it was a good mental test

241
00:12:23,920 --> 00:12:28,199
Speaker 1: for me. And it was you know, it was one

242
00:12:28,200 --> 00:12:30,120
Speaker 1: of those things where my fiance says this to me

243
00:12:30,160 --> 00:12:32,280
Speaker 1: all the time. It's if something doesn't go my way,

244
00:12:33,040 --> 00:12:35,640
Speaker 1: all you have to say is good because then you

245
00:12:35,760 --> 00:12:37,679
Speaker 1: use it to fuel you. So when I didn't make

246
00:12:37,720 --> 00:12:40,400
Speaker 1: the team and I'm on the flight home from California,

247
00:12:40,440 --> 00:12:42,400
Speaker 1: I literally competed and I took the red eye home

248
00:12:42,400 --> 00:12:45,760
Speaker 1: that night, and I was just thinking in my head,

249
00:12:45,920 --> 00:12:48,080
Speaker 1: you know what, good, I'm glad something like this happened

250
00:12:48,120 --> 00:12:50,000
Speaker 1: because I was just kind of going through the motions

251
00:12:50,000 --> 00:12:53,360
Speaker 1: this last year, and now I have the motivation to

252
00:12:53,400 --> 00:12:55,920
Speaker 1: get me to where I need to for Paris twenty

253
00:12:56,000 --> 00:12:56,400
Speaker 1: twenty four.

254
00:12:56,800 --> 00:12:59,880
Speaker 2: Nothing changes if nothing changes, right, And what a really

255
00:13:01,320 --> 00:13:05,240
Speaker 2: beautiful but I'm sure hard earned lesson that is to

256
00:13:05,440 --> 00:13:08,680
Speaker 2: look at challenge or things not going as you'd hoped

257
00:13:08,960 --> 00:13:09,800
Speaker 2: through this lens.

258
00:13:09,840 --> 00:13:12,920
Speaker 3: It's like, okay, so what's next? What happens now?

259
00:13:12,960 --> 00:13:15,360
Speaker 2: And then you as an individual need to make that

260
00:13:15,480 --> 00:13:18,080
Speaker 2: choice of how you want to proceed.

261
00:13:18,360 --> 00:13:21,760
Speaker 3: Move on, grow from things not going your way.

262
00:13:21,880 --> 00:13:23,920
Speaker 2: I find it so interesting as we talk about all

263
00:13:23,960 --> 00:13:25,920
Speaker 2: of these things a little bit so far, about your

264
00:13:25,960 --> 00:13:29,240
Speaker 2: Paralympic experience, your experience on survivor none of this would

265
00:13:29,240 --> 00:13:33,400
Speaker 2: have been happening if you hadn't gotten into that moped

266
00:13:33,480 --> 00:13:37,079
Speaker 2: accident in twenty sixteen. So bring me to July thirtieth,

267
00:13:37,240 --> 00:13:38,000
Speaker 2: twenty sixteen.

268
00:13:38,080 --> 00:13:41,320
Speaker 1: No weel, Yeah, I just finished an incredible freshman year

269
00:13:41,520 --> 00:13:45,440
Speaker 1: playing lacrosse at UMass LL. You know, as a freshman,

270
00:13:45,480 --> 00:13:47,400
Speaker 1: I started every single game, one of the leading points

271
00:13:47,400 --> 00:13:50,920
Speaker 1: scores on the team, so obviously very ecstatic about my

272
00:13:51,040 --> 00:13:55,080
Speaker 1: athletic future and excited. And it was about a month

273
00:13:55,120 --> 00:13:58,360
Speaker 1: before returning for my sophomore year, a couple of my

274
00:13:58,360 --> 00:14:00,840
Speaker 1: friends and I decided we wanted to do kind of

275
00:14:00,880 --> 00:14:03,680
Speaker 1: just one last vacation before we died during pre season,

276
00:14:04,400 --> 00:14:06,560
Speaker 1: so we headed to Martha's Vineyard. I'd never been to

277
00:14:06,559 --> 00:14:10,959
Speaker 1: Martha's Vineyard before, and all I remember was a beautiful

278
00:14:10,960 --> 00:14:12,640
Speaker 1: Saturday morning and the only thing we wanted to do

279
00:14:12,720 --> 00:14:14,600
Speaker 1: was go to the beach. But obviously we had no

280
00:14:14,679 --> 00:14:17,160
Speaker 1: form of transportation because we didn't bring a car on

281
00:14:17,200 --> 00:14:20,440
Speaker 1: the island. And then we saw a moped stand and

282
00:14:20,560 --> 00:14:23,920
Speaker 1: I had never personally driven a moped been on a moped,

283
00:14:24,840 --> 00:14:26,520
Speaker 1: but I was thinking to myself, you know, how hard

284
00:14:26,560 --> 00:14:30,240
Speaker 1: could it be? And that stubborn nineteen year old girl

285
00:14:30,360 --> 00:14:33,040
Speaker 1: that thinks she can is invincible, that could do anything.

286
00:14:34,000 --> 00:14:35,840
Speaker 1: The funny thing is my mom was begging me not

287
00:14:35,960 --> 00:14:38,160
Speaker 1: to go on a moped the entire week leading up

288
00:14:38,200 --> 00:14:41,520
Speaker 1: to it. And so, you know, one minute on the

289
00:14:41,560 --> 00:14:44,160
Speaker 1: main road, having incredible time. In the next minute, I

290
00:14:44,200 --> 00:14:46,560
Speaker 1: see a dump truck heading in the opposite direction as me.

291
00:14:46,640 --> 00:14:48,920
Speaker 1: One of my teammates was actually on the back with me,

292
00:14:49,760 --> 00:14:52,320
Speaker 1: and I think because of the weight distribution and because

293
00:14:52,360 --> 00:14:54,960
Speaker 1: I just had no idea how to drive the moped,

294
00:14:55,120 --> 00:14:59,000
Speaker 1: I lost control and I veered left. I sidewiped the

295
00:14:59,080 --> 00:15:02,000
Speaker 1: dump truck and the next thing I remember is laying

296
00:15:02,040 --> 00:15:04,640
Speaker 1: on the ground and when I lifted up my legs,

297
00:15:04,960 --> 00:15:07,800
Speaker 1: I saw that my left leg was it was completely gone.

298
00:15:07,920 --> 00:15:11,240
Speaker 1: It was severed. On the scene, I remember turning and

299
00:15:11,280 --> 00:15:17,120
Speaker 1: seeing my teammate, my friend Kelly, and I didn't see

300
00:15:17,160 --> 00:15:20,760
Speaker 1: her missing any limbs, but I saw her bleeding and

301
00:15:20,800 --> 00:15:26,240
Speaker 1: I was just thinking what just happened? And lacrosse was

302
00:15:26,280 --> 00:15:28,880
Speaker 1: the first thing I thought about lacrosse and sports because

303
00:15:29,840 --> 00:15:31,920
Speaker 1: growing up I was a three sport athlete. I have

304
00:15:32,040 --> 00:15:35,320
Speaker 1: three older brothers. I've always been active. I've never gone

305
00:15:35,360 --> 00:15:38,280
Speaker 1: through a time where I had a tough injury where

306
00:15:38,320 --> 00:15:41,120
Speaker 1: I was sidelined. I was always active in some sort

307
00:15:41,120 --> 00:15:44,440
Speaker 1: of way. So I was honestly laying there thinking that

308
00:15:44,480 --> 00:15:46,360
Speaker 1: my life was over. I didn't think I was going

309
00:15:46,400 --> 00:15:49,160
Speaker 1: to die because I was in shock. The adrenaline was

310
00:15:49,240 --> 00:15:51,480
Speaker 1: kicking in. I wasn't feeling anything. But the man that

311
00:15:51,560 --> 00:15:54,640
Speaker 1: was actually driving behind me took his shirt off to

312
00:15:54,640 --> 00:15:58,359
Speaker 1: create a tourner quit to stop a bleeding, which obviously

313
00:15:58,480 --> 00:16:01,720
Speaker 1: is one of the only reasons why I'm talking to

314
00:16:01,760 --> 00:16:03,960
Speaker 1: you right now. He was the one that saved my life,

315
00:16:04,800 --> 00:16:08,880
Speaker 1: and I also had a ton of bystanders coming to me.

316
00:16:09,000 --> 00:16:10,920
Speaker 1: But I think it was definitely just one of those

317
00:16:10,960 --> 00:16:14,440
Speaker 1: moments where it was like an out of body like

318
00:16:14,520 --> 00:16:16,840
Speaker 1: I was sitting there like kind of watching it and

319
00:16:17,120 --> 00:16:19,880
Speaker 1: just thinking is this real life? Like that this really

320
00:16:19,920 --> 00:16:21,760
Speaker 1: just happened, And I was honestly thinking they were going

321
00:16:21,800 --> 00:16:23,640
Speaker 1: to be able to reattach the leg. I was telling

322
00:16:23,640 --> 00:16:26,880
Speaker 1: everybody you know, find my leg, because they're going to

323
00:16:26,880 --> 00:16:29,960
Speaker 1: be able to reattach it, this isn't it. And everything

324
00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:33,400
Speaker 1: that was severed was below my knee. And then when

325
00:16:33,400 --> 00:16:35,200
Speaker 1: I went into surgery, they had to take the knee

326
00:16:35,240 --> 00:16:36,920
Speaker 1: because it was too mangled. I would have a better

327
00:16:36,960 --> 00:16:39,680
Speaker 1: quality of life if they took it, because if they didn't,

328
00:16:39,680 --> 00:16:42,880
Speaker 1: I probably would have been doing surgery after surgery. It

329
00:16:42,880 --> 00:16:45,960
Speaker 1: would have been delayed. And so my parents and I

330
00:16:46,040 --> 00:16:49,960
Speaker 1: made the decision to just take the knee. Now, if

331
00:16:50,000 --> 00:16:51,320
Speaker 1: you were to ask me, I would have been like,

332
00:16:51,400 --> 00:16:54,040
Speaker 1: keep that knee because it would help me so much.

333
00:16:55,160 --> 00:16:57,520
Speaker 1: I literally was in the hospital for four or five days.

334
00:16:57,520 --> 00:16:58,960
Speaker 1: That was the only thing that was wrong with me.

335
00:16:59,440 --> 00:17:01,400
Speaker 1: I didn't have a scratch on my body other than that.

336
00:17:01,640 --> 00:17:04,040
Speaker 1: I was very lucky, very fortunate enough. And then I

337
00:17:04,080 --> 00:17:05,760
Speaker 1: was in physical therapy for a week and then I

338
00:17:05,800 --> 00:17:10,120
Speaker 1: was back home. So to only have two surgeries out

339
00:17:10,160 --> 00:17:13,000
Speaker 1: of something like that, thank god, because it could have

340
00:17:13,000 --> 00:17:15,640
Speaker 1: been a lot worse. I could have died. My teammate

341
00:17:15,760 --> 00:17:19,120
Speaker 1: she actually it was all of her injuries were from

342
00:17:19,160 --> 00:17:21,600
Speaker 1: the impact of the pavement, and she had a huge

343
00:17:21,680 --> 00:17:24,480
Speaker 1: laceration on the back of her right leg. She had

344
00:17:24,480 --> 00:17:27,960
Speaker 1: some shoulder issues. But I mean, when I look back

345
00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:31,040
Speaker 1: and I'm so grateful that it was me that lost

346
00:17:31,080 --> 00:17:33,600
Speaker 1: my leg because I was the one driving, and I

347
00:17:33,640 --> 00:17:37,800
Speaker 1: take responsibility for that. But yeah, it was definitely an

348
00:17:37,800 --> 00:17:40,439
Speaker 1: insane and when I was in the hospital, it was

349
00:17:40,520 --> 00:17:43,840
Speaker 1: just I was so fortunate enough to have the support

350
00:17:43,880 --> 00:17:46,880
Speaker 1: that I did. I mean, I credit me not going

351
00:17:46,880 --> 00:17:49,080
Speaker 1: through a depression to the people that took the time

352
00:17:49,480 --> 00:17:51,400
Speaker 1: to come and visit me. I had tons of visitors

353
00:17:51,440 --> 00:17:54,920
Speaker 1: every single day. I had people from the Boston Marathon,

354
00:17:55,280 --> 00:17:57,480
Speaker 1: the survivors reaching out and a few of them coming

355
00:17:57,480 --> 00:18:00,000
Speaker 1: to visit. And once I saw them and heard their story,

356
00:18:00,160 --> 00:18:03,080
Speaker 1: I snapped out of it because I'm thinking to myself,

357
00:18:03,920 --> 00:18:06,760
Speaker 1: you know, I didn't go through what they went through.

358
00:18:06,880 --> 00:18:08,639
Speaker 1: Nobody did this to me. I was the one that

359
00:18:08,680 --> 00:18:12,440
Speaker 1: did this to myself. And I saw the sense of

360
00:18:12,520 --> 00:18:17,240
Speaker 1: humor that they had. My late uncle at the time,

361
00:18:17,320 --> 00:18:20,439
Speaker 1: he's he was a double blowne amputee and he was

362
00:18:20,760 --> 00:18:22,959
Speaker 1: a huge impact on me in the hospital, and his

363
00:18:23,000 --> 00:18:25,800
Speaker 1: sense of humor is amazing. It's incredible. I mean, he

364
00:18:25,920 --> 00:18:29,040
Speaker 1: just he jokes around all the time. And he told me,

365
00:18:29,119 --> 00:18:30,880
Speaker 1: he was like, if you want people to feel comfortable

366
00:18:30,880 --> 00:18:33,800
Speaker 1: with you, just joke around with them. Get them it'll

367
00:18:33,840 --> 00:18:36,080
Speaker 1: open them up and it'll make them realize that you're

368
00:18:36,119 --> 00:18:39,960
Speaker 1: still a human being. It's just a prosthetic leg. And yeah,

369
00:18:39,960 --> 00:18:41,520
Speaker 1: it sucks that we have to do that, but I

370
00:18:41,600 --> 00:18:44,359
Speaker 1: understand it. I mean, before I lost my leg, when

371
00:18:44,400 --> 00:18:47,920
Speaker 1: I saw an Antco'd immediately feel sorry for them. But now,

372
00:18:47,960 --> 00:18:50,360
Speaker 1: when I'm walking down the street like walking my dog,

373
00:18:50,400 --> 00:18:53,760
Speaker 1: I don't even think about having a prosthetic leg. So yeah,

374
00:18:53,800 --> 00:18:57,640
Speaker 1: the whole experience it was. It's crazy, but I mean

375
00:18:57,720 --> 00:19:00,000
Speaker 1: it's gotten me to where I am today.

376
00:19:00,119 --> 00:19:05,440
Speaker 2: An insane story that you have and truly so interesting

377
00:19:05,720 --> 00:19:09,280
Speaker 2: to hear you tell it and to hear about how

378
00:19:10,240 --> 00:19:14,200
Speaker 2: you were so forward thinking despite such a chaotic moment.

379
00:19:14,480 --> 00:19:17,359
Speaker 2: Heartbreaking to think about that your first thought was about sport,

380
00:19:17,480 --> 00:19:21,240
Speaker 2: but then even to have the mindset of where's my leg?

381
00:19:21,800 --> 00:19:24,119
Speaker 2: Want to make sure we bring that with me, right?

382
00:19:24,600 --> 00:19:27,440
Speaker 2: That is truly insane to hear that that's where your

383
00:19:27,480 --> 00:19:28,600
Speaker 2: head was in that moment.

384
00:19:28,960 --> 00:19:32,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was crazy, and I was thinking about I

385
00:19:33,760 --> 00:19:36,920
Speaker 1: was honestly, I can't I can't even say this out

386
00:19:36,960 --> 00:19:39,080
Speaker 1: loud because it's just it's so funny to me. But

387
00:19:39,160 --> 00:19:41,679
Speaker 1: I was thinking, Okay, well maybe this will get me

388
00:19:41,720 --> 00:19:43,040
Speaker 1: out of the rent test that I have to do

389
00:19:43,080 --> 00:19:45,199
Speaker 1: in like a month and a half because I didn't.

390
00:19:45,480 --> 00:19:48,240
Speaker 1: I didn't train for it whatsoever all summer. I was

391
00:19:48,320 --> 00:19:50,720
Speaker 1: that type of person that didn't do any extra work

392
00:19:50,800 --> 00:19:52,720
Speaker 1: other than when I showed up. If it was an

393
00:19:52,760 --> 00:19:54,840
Speaker 1: in game competition, I would run through a brick wall.

394
00:19:55,000 --> 00:19:56,360
Speaker 1: But if you tried to get me to do any

395
00:19:56,359 --> 00:19:59,600
Speaker 1: extra work, I was that lazy, stubborn athlete. So it's

396
00:19:59,640 --> 00:20:03,080
Speaker 1: crazy to think about, but I needed something like this

397
00:20:03,160 --> 00:20:06,200
Speaker 1: to happen to me because I never understood or appreciated

398
00:20:06,200 --> 00:20:10,240
Speaker 1: hard work. You know, I was very fortunate enough to

399
00:20:10,240 --> 00:20:14,439
Speaker 1: have the like the natural born gifted athlete. But you know,

400
00:20:14,480 --> 00:20:17,639
Speaker 1: when I was going through my recovery and I'm driving

401
00:20:17,680 --> 00:20:19,960
Speaker 1: myself back and forth to campus every single day without

402
00:20:19,960 --> 00:20:24,840
Speaker 1: a prosthetic leg, I'm sitting on the sidelines with my crutches, thinking,

403
00:20:25,280 --> 00:20:27,080
Speaker 1: you know what if I applied myself. What if I

404
00:20:27,119 --> 00:20:30,080
Speaker 1: applied myself in practice, would I be playing one of

405
00:20:30,119 --> 00:20:31,960
Speaker 1: the top division on programs in the country. Would I

406
00:20:32,040 --> 00:20:34,440
Speaker 1: even lost my leg? So like having all those what IFFs,

407
00:20:34,440 --> 00:20:36,800
Speaker 1: I mean, everybody goes through it, and it was one

408
00:20:36,800 --> 00:20:41,040
Speaker 1: of those defining moments for me where I told myself, Okay,

409
00:20:41,160 --> 00:20:45,359
Speaker 1: I can either let this be it and I could quit,

410
00:20:45,520 --> 00:20:48,240
Speaker 1: or I could use this as motivation and work my

411
00:20:48,359 --> 00:20:51,960
Speaker 1: way back on the field. I from a very very

412
00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:54,280
Speaker 1: early on in my accident, I told myself that I

413
00:20:54,320 --> 00:20:57,080
Speaker 1: was going to return playing divisional on lacrosse. I had

414
00:20:57,080 --> 00:20:59,400
Speaker 1: no idea how tough it was going to be. I

415
00:20:59,440 --> 00:21:03,399
Speaker 1: was just telling myself, you know, why can't I do this?

416
00:21:03,520 --> 00:21:06,119
Speaker 1: And when I went and met with my processus for

417
00:21:06,160 --> 00:21:09,040
Speaker 1: the first time, I walked in and he's an above

418
00:21:09,119 --> 00:21:12,280
Speaker 1: the emputee himself. He's a paralympian and a downhill slope

419
00:21:12,280 --> 00:21:14,840
Speaker 1: for skiing, so he's an athlete. He understands everything I'm

420
00:21:14,840 --> 00:21:18,320
Speaker 1: going through. And I tell him that I want to

421
00:21:18,320 --> 00:21:21,920
Speaker 1: get back playing lacrosse. And he has two kids and

422
00:21:21,960 --> 00:21:25,399
Speaker 1: one of them plays lacrosse, so he understands what I

423
00:21:25,440 --> 00:21:27,960
Speaker 1: have to be able to do, and me being an

424
00:21:27,960 --> 00:21:30,320
Speaker 1: above knee amputee. He looks at me and he said,

425
00:21:30,320 --> 00:21:32,720
Speaker 1: maybe we should start with running first. I don't know

426
00:21:32,880 --> 00:21:35,119
Speaker 1: how you're going to be able to cut back and

427
00:21:35,160 --> 00:21:38,800
Speaker 1: forth and be so quick off your prosthetic blade. And

428
00:21:38,880 --> 00:21:40,920
Speaker 1: I don't know how you're going to backpedal, because when

429
00:21:40,960 --> 00:21:44,879
Speaker 1: I have my running blade. If my blade travels further

430
00:21:45,040 --> 00:21:48,159
Speaker 1: than my sound side, the knee will buckle and I

431
00:21:48,200 --> 00:21:50,440
Speaker 1: will fall on the ground. So I need to figure

432
00:21:50,440 --> 00:21:52,639
Speaker 1: out all these different ways. But I didn't even want

433
00:21:52,680 --> 00:21:54,239
Speaker 1: to hear it from him. I was like, no, we're

434
00:21:54,280 --> 00:21:56,000
Speaker 1: going to start with the lacrosse and I'm going to

435
00:21:56,040 --> 00:21:58,080
Speaker 1: play lacrosse again. I'll figure out a way. I'll figure

436
00:21:58,080 --> 00:22:00,800
Speaker 1: out a position that works. And so I spent that

437
00:22:00,960 --> 00:22:04,080
Speaker 1: entire sophomore year. I mean, obviously I wasn't able to

438
00:22:04,119 --> 00:22:06,920
Speaker 1: get a running blade right off the bat, because, believe

439
00:22:06,920 --> 00:22:08,600
Speaker 1: it or not, a lot of people don't realize this.

440
00:22:08,680 --> 00:22:11,280
Speaker 1: Insurance companies will not cover a running blade, which is

441
00:22:11,280 --> 00:22:16,160
Speaker 1: considered a specialized prosthetic, and they only cover your everyday

442
00:22:16,160 --> 00:22:20,120
Speaker 1: walking leg. But a specialized prosthetic a running blade can

443
00:22:20,119 --> 00:22:23,040
Speaker 1: cost anywhere from ten to thirty thousand dollars depending on

444
00:22:23,080 --> 00:22:24,680
Speaker 1: what type of leg you want. And you know, I'm

445
00:22:24,760 --> 00:22:26,600
Speaker 1: nineteen years old at the time. I don't have that

446
00:22:26,600 --> 00:22:29,240
Speaker 1: type of money. I wasn't go I wasn't trying to

447
00:22:29,240 --> 00:22:32,480
Speaker 1: make my parents pay for all these new and exciting legs.

448
00:22:32,520 --> 00:22:34,720
Speaker 1: But that's when I started learning about all these amazing

449
00:22:34,760 --> 00:22:38,240
Speaker 1: foundations out there. That's coort apthies like myself. So started

450
00:22:38,240 --> 00:22:40,440
Speaker 1: applying to a bunch I found. I found out from

451
00:22:40,440 --> 00:22:42,080
Speaker 1: one that they were going to get me with a

452
00:22:42,240 --> 00:22:43,920
Speaker 1: running prosthetic, but it was going to be about a

453
00:22:43,920 --> 00:22:46,800
Speaker 1: six month process, and I just decided to create a

454
00:22:46,840 --> 00:22:49,160
Speaker 1: different role for myself on the team in the meantime.

455
00:22:49,400 --> 00:22:53,200
Speaker 1: I wanted to, you know, create that positive, that positive

456
00:22:53,320 --> 00:22:55,720
Speaker 1: light on the bench, you know. And I never wanted

457
00:22:55,760 --> 00:22:59,200
Speaker 1: to see or hear people sulking or crying or complaining

458
00:22:59,200 --> 00:23:01,520
Speaker 1: because they weren't getting applying time, because in my eyes,

459
00:23:01,560 --> 00:23:03,680
Speaker 1: they had the opportunity to show up the next day

460
00:23:04,000 --> 00:23:05,800
Speaker 1: and to prove that they should be out in that field.

461
00:23:06,280 --> 00:23:10,800
Speaker 2: Super interesting to hear about how you started to change

462
00:23:10,840 --> 00:23:15,440
Speaker 2: your own perspective of how you wanted to invest in yourself.

463
00:23:15,640 --> 00:23:15,960
Speaker 3: Right.

464
00:23:16,160 --> 00:23:18,800
Speaker 2: There are so many people listening to this that have

465
00:23:19,200 --> 00:23:21,720
Speaker 2: definitely gone through a time or maybe they're in it

466
00:23:21,800 --> 00:23:25,359
Speaker 2: right now where they too feel like or can identify

467
00:23:25,359 --> 00:23:27,879
Speaker 2: that they are taking the lazy approach right and so

468
00:23:28,359 --> 00:23:31,200
Speaker 2: for you to then consciously change your ways, for you

469
00:23:31,240 --> 00:23:33,959
Speaker 2: to have to not only try a little bit harder,

470
00:23:34,160 --> 00:23:38,679
Speaker 2: but to drastically try differently to get back to a

471
00:23:38,720 --> 00:23:42,119
Speaker 2: place that's nowhere where ultimately you really want to be.

472
00:23:42,560 --> 00:23:46,479
Speaker 2: How did you manage that mindset? How did you not

473
00:23:46,920 --> 00:23:50,120
Speaker 2: allow that victim mentality to take over you.

474
00:23:51,080 --> 00:23:53,720
Speaker 1: I have to credit this to my teammates and my

475
00:23:53,800 --> 00:23:56,720
Speaker 1: coaches alone, because, believe me, in the beginning, I did

476
00:23:56,760 --> 00:23:59,239
Speaker 1: try to use my disability as an excuse or a

477
00:23:59,240 --> 00:24:02,160
Speaker 1: reason not to do something, and none of them would

478
00:24:02,160 --> 00:24:04,640
Speaker 1: have it. Everyone would look at me. If we were

479
00:24:04,640 --> 00:24:07,480
Speaker 1: doing a run test and I had to hit the

480
00:24:07,520 --> 00:24:08,920
Speaker 1: mark on a certain time, I would look at my

481
00:24:08,960 --> 00:24:10,920
Speaker 1: coaches and I'd be like, well, obviously I'm not going

482
00:24:10,960 --> 00:24:12,240
Speaker 1: to hit that time, And then I would hear my

483
00:24:12,280 --> 00:24:13,879
Speaker 1: cats and say, no, I'll shut up and get on

484
00:24:13,920 --> 00:24:16,840
Speaker 1: the line, and you're going to do this. My assistant

485
00:24:16,840 --> 00:24:20,320
Speaker 1: coach is the sole reason why I was able to

486
00:24:20,320 --> 00:24:24,280
Speaker 1: return playing in the first place, because obviously I wasn't

487
00:24:24,640 --> 00:24:26,760
Speaker 1: going to go up to my head coach and ask

488
00:24:26,840 --> 00:24:29,400
Speaker 1: her to practice with me every single day. She needs

489
00:24:29,440 --> 00:24:31,280
Speaker 1: to run the team, she needs to run the program.

490
00:24:31,880 --> 00:24:36,480
Speaker 1: And my assistant coach, her name is Carly. She was

491
00:24:36,520 --> 00:24:38,960
Speaker 1: about I think three or four years older than me,

492
00:24:39,320 --> 00:24:43,959
Speaker 1: and she played lacrosse at Oregon. Incredible athlete, and she

493
00:24:44,119 --> 00:24:46,480
Speaker 1: was playing on the professional team, so she had to

494
00:24:46,560 --> 00:24:49,520
Speaker 1: keep herself in shape, so she was working out anyways.

495
00:24:50,080 --> 00:24:53,080
Speaker 1: She took it upon herself to literally put me under

496
00:24:53,080 --> 00:24:58,600
Speaker 1: her wing and I had to do every single footwork, drill, lifting, drill,

497
00:24:58,800 --> 00:25:00,920
Speaker 1: like anything you can think of, I was doing with her.

498
00:25:01,640 --> 00:25:04,359
Speaker 1: And she was the one that taught me to not

499
00:25:05,080 --> 00:25:07,880
Speaker 1: use my disability as an excuse or reason to give

500
00:25:07,960 --> 00:25:11,000
Speaker 1: up or quit because she never wanted to hear it.

501
00:25:11,240 --> 00:25:13,480
Speaker 1: I we would have that relationship where we would scream

502
00:25:13,520 --> 00:25:16,000
Speaker 1: back and forth at each other, and that's what I needed.

503
00:25:16,040 --> 00:25:18,240
Speaker 1: I didn't need someone to hold my hand. I needed

504
00:25:18,280 --> 00:25:20,399
Speaker 1: somebody to yell at me and scream at me because

505
00:25:21,520 --> 00:25:23,399
Speaker 1: right when I was young, that from when I was

506
00:25:23,640 --> 00:25:26,040
Speaker 1: you know, born, that's how I was treated by my

507
00:25:26,119 --> 00:25:29,760
Speaker 1: brothers and that's really how I respond best. And in

508
00:25:29,840 --> 00:25:33,280
Speaker 1: high school that when I had all my incredible coaches

509
00:25:33,320 --> 00:25:36,560
Speaker 1: that I had, they would realize the type of person

510
00:25:36,640 --> 00:25:38,280
Speaker 1: I was and they knew how to coach me. They

511
00:25:38,359 --> 00:25:40,960
Speaker 1: knew to give me that tough love, to not hold

512
00:25:40,960 --> 00:25:44,400
Speaker 1: my hand, and that's how I excelled. So to have

513
00:25:44,480 --> 00:25:47,840
Speaker 1: the relationship that I have with my assistant coach, I mean,

514
00:25:47,840 --> 00:25:50,720
Speaker 1: she was the one that taught me to focus on

515
00:25:50,760 --> 00:25:54,159
Speaker 1: the things that I can only control. And you know,

516
00:25:54,240 --> 00:25:56,720
Speaker 1: she was all She's also big into crossbits, so she

517
00:25:56,800 --> 00:25:59,680
Speaker 1: was reading all these all these book about mentat books

518
00:25:59,680 --> 00:26:01,879
Speaker 1: about my mentality, and she was just we would have

519
00:26:01,920 --> 00:26:07,240
Speaker 1: these conversations, and I remember one day I just dropped

520
00:26:07,280 --> 00:26:10,560
Speaker 1: my stick because I was starting to really feel comfortable

521
00:26:10,560 --> 00:26:13,040
Speaker 1: in practice, but something was missing. I wasn't getting any

522
00:26:13,040 --> 00:26:15,240
Speaker 1: playing time, and I was starting to get very frustrated

523
00:26:15,280 --> 00:26:17,000
Speaker 1: because I thought I was killing myself to get back

524
00:26:17,040 --> 00:26:19,720
Speaker 1: on that field. And I just remember dropping my stick

525
00:26:19,760 --> 00:26:23,680
Speaker 1: and I started hysterically crying. And that was the first

526
00:26:23,720 --> 00:26:26,240
Speaker 1: time that I ever showed a motion to anybody. After

527
00:26:26,240 --> 00:26:28,320
Speaker 1: my accident, I was that person that put up the wall.

528
00:26:28,440 --> 00:26:30,920
Speaker 1: I didn't want to let anybody in. I didn't want

529
00:26:30,960 --> 00:26:34,320
Speaker 1: people to feel sorry for me. I didn't want the pity.

530
00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:37,800
Speaker 1: You know. I always portrayed my accident as a positive.

531
00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:40,240
Speaker 1: I would joke around all the time to get people

532
00:26:40,280 --> 00:26:43,480
Speaker 1: to feel comfortable with me. But what I was doing

533
00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:45,680
Speaker 1: is I was keeping everything inside, and I was bottling

534
00:26:45,840 --> 00:26:50,360
Speaker 1: up until the point where I exploded. And I remember,

535
00:26:50,600 --> 00:26:52,520
Speaker 1: you know, tears are running down my face. I lifted

536
00:26:52,600 --> 00:26:55,840
Speaker 1: up my head expecting her to comfort me and said

537
00:26:55,840 --> 00:26:57,360
Speaker 1: she had a smile on her face and she said

538
00:26:57,440 --> 00:26:59,200
Speaker 1: to well, this is what we had been waiting for,

539
00:26:59,720 --> 00:27:02,840
Speaker 1: and you cannot go through something like this on your own.

540
00:27:03,040 --> 00:27:07,679
Speaker 1: And we didn't feel comfortable playing you knowing that you

541
00:27:07,720 --> 00:27:10,159
Speaker 1: haven't opened up to us, because if we put you

542
00:27:10,200 --> 00:27:12,840
Speaker 1: in that game and you failed and you had something

543
00:27:12,880 --> 00:27:14,880
Speaker 1: like this, you would have never come back. You would

544
00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:18,439
Speaker 1: have quit. So we needed this to happen before. And

545
00:27:19,320 --> 00:27:21,480
Speaker 1: I cried for about four or five hours that day.

546
00:27:21,480 --> 00:27:23,760
Speaker 1: But I mean, I think I was twenty twenty one

547
00:27:23,840 --> 00:27:26,160
Speaker 1: years all the time. And that was my first experience

548
00:27:26,920 --> 00:27:29,280
Speaker 1: with realizing how important mental health is, you know, as

549
00:27:29,320 --> 00:27:32,719
Speaker 1: a person, as an athlete. You know, growing up, I

550
00:27:32,800 --> 00:27:35,960
Speaker 1: was very fortunate enough to have incredible parents and an

551
00:27:35,960 --> 00:27:39,359
Speaker 1: amazing family. Things weren't handed to me, but I was.

552
00:27:39,440 --> 00:27:41,439
Speaker 1: I was a very lucky kid. I didn't have to

553
00:27:41,440 --> 00:27:46,000
Speaker 1: go through any difficult moments. And so having the mental

554
00:27:46,040 --> 00:27:49,600
Speaker 1: struggle of going through something like this, and you know,

555
00:27:49,640 --> 00:27:51,600
Speaker 1: always having the self doubt in the back of my

556
00:27:51,720 --> 00:27:55,199
Speaker 1: head because I'm a human being, I do doubt myself

557
00:27:55,200 --> 00:27:58,639
Speaker 1: before every single new adventure. But what I've learned how

558
00:27:58,680 --> 00:28:01,240
Speaker 1: to turn that around is. I use it as motivation

559
00:28:01,359 --> 00:28:05,040
Speaker 1: and I use it as fuel. I don't portray myself

560
00:28:05,080 --> 00:28:09,240
Speaker 1: as somebody who has self doubt, but I still have

561
00:28:09,359 --> 00:28:11,280
Speaker 1: it to this day. I mean, before every single thing,

562
00:28:11,320 --> 00:28:14,000
Speaker 1: I'm thinking to myself, can I actually do this? And

563
00:28:14,080 --> 00:28:17,040
Speaker 1: I always go back to those, you know, the lessons

564
00:28:17,040 --> 00:28:20,399
Speaker 1: that I learned from my assistant coach, Carly, because she

565
00:28:20,600 --> 00:28:23,119
Speaker 1: was the sole reason and the sole purpose why I

566
00:28:23,160 --> 00:28:24,879
Speaker 1: was able to actually return to the field. I mean,

567
00:28:24,880 --> 00:28:27,159
Speaker 1: I was doing things with my prosthetic leg that my

568
00:28:27,400 --> 00:28:31,359
Speaker 1: processess when he saw me doing them, he said, he's

569
00:28:31,400 --> 00:28:33,720
Speaker 1: never seen it before. I was cutting better off my

570
00:28:33,760 --> 00:28:35,879
Speaker 1: prosthetic leg than I was with my real leg. And

571
00:28:35,920 --> 00:28:39,640
Speaker 1: it was, honestly just it was me working at something

572
00:28:39,680 --> 00:28:42,360
Speaker 1: and it was me just not taking Noah as an answer.

573
00:28:43,240 --> 00:28:45,240
Speaker 1: But I will say this, if it was up to me,

574
00:28:45,800 --> 00:28:48,360
Speaker 1: I probably would have quit that first couple weeks of

575
00:28:48,400 --> 00:28:54,440
Speaker 1: practicing because obviously I wasn't working with my assistant coach

576
00:28:54,480 --> 00:28:58,320
Speaker 1: the first couple of weeks, and I was failing epically

577
00:28:58,440 --> 00:29:01,560
Speaker 1: every single day. I couldn't catch a path. I would

578
00:29:01,600 --> 00:29:03,480
Speaker 1: hide in drills because I didn't want to put my

579
00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:05,640
Speaker 1: teammates in a position to fail and she was the

580
00:29:05,640 --> 00:29:08,480
Speaker 1: one that saw that and she took it upon herself

581
00:29:09,440 --> 00:29:12,120
Speaker 1: to do what it to do what I needed to

582
00:29:12,840 --> 00:29:14,920
Speaker 1: allow me to play. And I thought that was something

583
00:29:15,120 --> 00:29:18,160
Speaker 1: that is I can never take away from and I

584
00:29:18,160 --> 00:29:21,280
Speaker 1: always credit her to that, and that's why I always

585
00:29:21,360 --> 00:29:24,560
Speaker 1: try to share the message out is you know, I

586
00:29:24,600 --> 00:29:28,080
Speaker 1: am that person that believes it takes a village to

587
00:29:28,120 --> 00:29:30,720
Speaker 1: be able to achieve your goals or to live out

588
00:29:30,720 --> 00:29:33,840
Speaker 1: your dreams the way you want and to always find

589
00:29:33,960 --> 00:29:35,719
Speaker 1: the one or two people in your life that can

590
00:29:35,760 --> 00:29:40,240
Speaker 1: create a positive impact, because there are like a couple

591
00:29:40,280 --> 00:29:42,320
Speaker 1: of people in my life where I wouldn't if it

592
00:29:42,360 --> 00:29:44,160
Speaker 1: wasn't for them, I wouldn't be where I am today.

593
00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:46,480
Speaker 1: And it doesn't just come naturally. You have to go

594
00:29:46,560 --> 00:29:49,400
Speaker 1: out looking for it. You have to fight for it

595
00:29:49,800 --> 00:29:54,240
Speaker 1: based upon if you're if you want to actually live

596
00:29:54,280 --> 00:29:57,200
Speaker 1: the life that you want. So I was very fortunate

597
00:29:57,320 --> 00:29:58,960
Speaker 1: enough to be able to lose my leg at the

598
00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:01,600
Speaker 1: time that I did, because if I lost my leg,

599
00:30:02,480 --> 00:30:05,600
Speaker 1: you know, after graduating college, I wouldn't be a paralympian.

600
00:30:05,720 --> 00:30:08,440
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be as active because I wouldn't have learned

601
00:30:08,760 --> 00:30:10,560
Speaker 1: the lessons that I needed to to get me to

602
00:30:10,600 --> 00:30:15,280
Speaker 1: where I am today.

603
00:30:16,320 --> 00:30:19,120
Speaker 2: Taking a break from today's episode to give some love

604
00:30:19,320 --> 00:30:20,960
Speaker 2: to my sponsor at Element.

605
00:30:21,080 --> 00:30:24,640
Speaker 3: Now. I love drinking Element all year round.

606
00:30:24,720 --> 00:30:28,600
Speaker 2: It helps anyone stay hydrated, Scott the electrolytes you need

607
00:30:28,720 --> 00:30:32,000
Speaker 2: without the sugar and other dodgy ingredients that are found

608
00:30:32,000 --> 00:30:34,120
Speaker 2: in other popular electrolyte.

609
00:30:33,600 --> 00:30:34,960
Speaker 3: And sports drinks.

610
00:30:35,280 --> 00:30:39,360
Speaker 2: But come the chillier months, I cannot wait to get

611
00:30:39,400 --> 00:30:42,880
Speaker 2: my hands on the Element Chocolate Medley, which includes their

612
00:30:42,960 --> 00:30:47,440
Speaker 2: chocolate mint, chocolate Chai and chocolate raspberry. I drink it

613
00:30:47,560 --> 00:30:51,720
Speaker 2: as my late afternoon treat. I warm it up with water,

614
00:30:51,880 --> 00:30:56,120
Speaker 2: a splash of milk, and off chef's kiss. It is

615
00:30:56,200 --> 00:31:00,440
Speaker 2: something I literally look forward to on the regular and

616
00:31:00,520 --> 00:31:04,120
Speaker 2: I've been incorporating Element into my routine whether or not

617
00:31:04,280 --> 00:31:07,360
Speaker 2: I'm training for a marathon, because I know the importance

618
00:31:07,400 --> 00:31:11,880
Speaker 2: of staying hydrated. Let's face it, hydration is more than

619
00:31:12,080 --> 00:31:17,200
Speaker 2: just drinking water, and we need electrolytes to function properly,

620
00:31:17,320 --> 00:31:21,920
Speaker 2: and electrolyte deficiency or imbalance it can cause things like headaches, cramps, fatigue,

621
00:31:22,200 --> 00:31:25,920
Speaker 2: brain fog, weakness, and I just don't have time for it.

622
00:31:26,160 --> 00:31:30,280
Speaker 2: So get in on the Element game today. Trust me,

623
00:31:30,680 --> 00:31:34,560
Speaker 2: you won't regret it. Head on over to drink lmnt

624
00:31:34,840 --> 00:31:39,120
Speaker 2: dot com slash kurdle again. That is, drink lmnt dot

625
00:31:39,160 --> 00:31:42,680
Speaker 2: com slash hurdle to get a free sample pack with

626
00:31:42,960 --> 00:31:46,400
Speaker 2: any purchase today so you can try all of the

627
00:31:46,440 --> 00:31:57,760
Speaker 2: flavors again. Let's drink Element dot com slash hurdle. It's

628
00:31:57,800 --> 00:31:59,880
Speaker 2: a wild such a wild thing. And to think about

629
00:31:59,920 --> 00:32:04,160
Speaker 2: the fact that you hadn't emotionally let go after losing

630
00:32:04,200 --> 00:32:07,760
Speaker 2: your leg and having to come back in that manner

631
00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:11,680
Speaker 2: until that point that you described, I literally like let

632
00:32:11,720 --> 00:32:14,280
Speaker 2: out a deep breath for you, because I can't even

633
00:32:14,480 --> 00:32:18,760
Speaker 2: fathom how it felt to maybe not even knowingly be

634
00:32:18,920 --> 00:32:22,320
Speaker 2: walking around with the burden of that, right, I mean,

635
00:32:22,720 --> 00:32:25,400
Speaker 2: talk to me a little bit about even as early

636
00:32:25,440 --> 00:32:27,520
Speaker 2: on as seeing your parents in the hospital for the

637
00:32:27,520 --> 00:32:31,360
Speaker 2: first time, to not even get emotional then, well.

638
00:32:31,240 --> 00:32:33,440
Speaker 1: It was pretty tough. It was. It was tough to

639
00:32:33,800 --> 00:32:38,200
Speaker 1: get emotional when I first saw my parents because when

640
00:32:38,200 --> 00:32:41,040
Speaker 1: my parents hugged me, My mom hugged me and she said,

641
00:32:41,600 --> 00:32:43,600
Speaker 1: don't worry, everyone's praying for you. I made a post

642
00:32:43,640 --> 00:32:46,440
Speaker 1: on Facebook and that just made me laugh because I

643
00:32:46,440 --> 00:32:49,000
Speaker 1: was like, Mom, I don't need the whole world knowing

644
00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:51,400
Speaker 1: that I lost my leg in a moped accident, because

645
00:32:52,200 --> 00:32:54,000
Speaker 1: that's ridiculous. Just like I didn't say that. All I

646
00:32:54,040 --> 00:32:55,520
Speaker 1: said is please pray for my baby girl. I'm like,

647
00:32:55,520 --> 00:32:57,640
Speaker 1: why are you even posting anything to begin with? Yeah,

648
00:32:57,680 --> 00:33:00,520
Speaker 1: I got so many text messages for people thinking I

649
00:33:00,600 --> 00:33:05,080
Speaker 1: was dead, like they had no idea. And but when

650
00:33:05,080 --> 00:33:08,280
Speaker 1: I did wake up the next morning after surgery, I

651
00:33:08,280 --> 00:33:11,680
Speaker 1: mean I was hysterically crying in my hospital. Ben and

652
00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:16,720
Speaker 1: my parents are the other. You know, you have those

653
00:33:16,760 --> 00:33:19,520
Speaker 1: few people that create major impacts in your life. My

654
00:33:19,680 --> 00:33:23,360
Speaker 1: parents are one hundred percent those people because how strong

655
00:33:23,480 --> 00:33:28,320
Speaker 1: they were in that moment. Yes, it's very difficult for me.

656
00:33:28,800 --> 00:33:32,280
Speaker 1: It's just as much difficult for my parents because I

657
00:33:32,320 --> 00:33:35,680
Speaker 1: am their baby girl. They feel as though they should

658
00:33:35,760 --> 00:33:40,920
Speaker 1: be protecting me. And they never showed me that they

659
00:33:40,920 --> 00:33:43,720
Speaker 1: were scared. They never showed me that they doubted me

660
00:33:43,800 --> 00:33:46,120
Speaker 1: in any way. My mom from the beginning told me

661
00:33:46,120 --> 00:33:47,800
Speaker 1: that I would play lacrosse again, that I would live

662
00:33:47,840 --> 00:33:51,720
Speaker 1: the life that I wanted to, and they just showed

663
00:33:51,760 --> 00:33:55,040
Speaker 1: me the support that I needed. And it's like they

664
00:33:55,080 --> 00:33:57,200
Speaker 1: made it. They obviously it was a big deal, but

665
00:33:57,240 --> 00:33:59,440
Speaker 1: they didn't make it a big deal. They didn't make

666
00:33:59,480 --> 00:34:02,520
Speaker 1: it seem like it was life changing on them. And

667
00:34:02,880 --> 00:34:06,000
Speaker 1: obviously that's what a lot of people don't realize is,

668
00:34:06,280 --> 00:34:09,080
Speaker 1: you know, when someone goes through an accident, they also

669
00:34:09,160 --> 00:34:11,160
Speaker 1: don't think like a lot of people don't think about

670
00:34:11,200 --> 00:34:12,880
Speaker 1: the people that are closest to them and how it

671
00:34:12,880 --> 00:34:15,600
Speaker 1: affects them. You know, my mom was telling me that

672
00:34:16,160 --> 00:34:19,200
Speaker 1: one of my brothers, who I'm most alike and we

673
00:34:19,360 --> 00:34:21,600
Speaker 1: bickered back and forth, we always butted heads, he was

674
00:34:21,680 --> 00:34:24,120
Speaker 1: crying over my hospital bed like the night before, and

675
00:34:24,160 --> 00:34:26,520
Speaker 1: I was like, you didn't videotape this, like this is

676
00:34:26,600 --> 00:34:28,920
Speaker 1: things that I like, I would love to see And

677
00:34:28,960 --> 00:34:32,400
Speaker 1: when I was crying in my hospital bed, like my

678
00:34:32,440 --> 00:34:34,600
Speaker 1: parents were obviously right there. But then my head coach

679
00:34:34,640 --> 00:34:37,560
Speaker 1: walked through the door, and when she stepped into the room,

680
00:34:38,600 --> 00:34:40,279
Speaker 1: I simply asked the question, Okay, what do I have

681
00:34:40,280 --> 00:34:42,080
Speaker 1: to do to play again? Because this cannot be it.

682
00:34:42,160 --> 00:34:44,120
Speaker 1: I won't allow this to be the rest of my story.

683
00:34:44,800 --> 00:34:46,640
Speaker 1: And she looks at me with a smile on her face,

684
00:34:46,760 --> 00:34:48,919
Speaker 1: reassuring me that my position on the team is going

685
00:34:48,920 --> 00:34:52,400
Speaker 1: absolutely nowhere in the community from U mass Lola is

686
00:34:52,440 --> 00:34:54,719
Speaker 1: going to be behind me one hundred percent. So in

687
00:34:54,760 --> 00:34:57,000
Speaker 1: that moment, that's what I needed to hear. I needed

688
00:34:57,000 --> 00:35:00,359
Speaker 1: to hear that I had the support system. And that's

689
00:35:00,360 --> 00:35:02,360
Speaker 1: what really made me snap out of it because I

690
00:35:02,400 --> 00:35:05,120
Speaker 1: thought to myself, I can't feel depressed right now because

691
00:35:05,200 --> 00:35:09,560
Speaker 1: I have a whole community that's willing to do whatever

692
00:35:09,600 --> 00:35:12,160
Speaker 1: it takes to get me to the next steps or

693
00:35:12,200 --> 00:35:14,279
Speaker 1: get me back on my feet. And I thought that

694
00:35:14,440 --> 00:35:17,879
Speaker 1: was just something that I can never talk about enough,

695
00:35:17,960 --> 00:35:21,359
Speaker 1: because that's it's If I didn't receive that, I don't

696
00:35:21,360 --> 00:35:22,720
Speaker 1: know how I would have taken everything.

697
00:35:22,960 --> 00:35:25,520
Speaker 2: Also, you said the word depression again, which triggered me

698
00:35:25,760 --> 00:35:28,919
Speaker 2: to think about you saying earlier that you never went

699
00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:31,960
Speaker 2: through one, and to think about going through that much

700
00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:35,520
Speaker 2: of a life altering moment, not just because yes, now

701
00:35:35,520 --> 00:35:39,319
Speaker 2: you're walking around technically with one like one prosthetic, but

702
00:35:39,360 --> 00:35:43,640
Speaker 2: then also like it truly changed the entire trajectory.

703
00:35:43,120 --> 00:35:43,720
Speaker 3: Of your life.

704
00:35:43,800 --> 00:35:48,640
Speaker 2: So aside from the village, talk to me about maybe

705
00:35:48,680 --> 00:35:54,840
Speaker 2: the mental gymnastics or what you did personally to stay

706
00:35:55,080 --> 00:36:00,359
Speaker 2: on a brighter path, because it's, without a doubt, would

707
00:36:00,400 --> 00:36:06,160
Speaker 2: have been a lot easier to slip into the opposite.

708
00:36:06,680 --> 00:36:10,520
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Yeah, absolutely. You know, in the beginning, I was

709
00:36:10,560 --> 00:36:14,840
Speaker 1: definitely self conscious having, you know, not having a prosthetic

710
00:36:14,920 --> 00:36:17,240
Speaker 1: leg yet I'm on crutches. I don't want people staring

711
00:36:17,280 --> 00:36:20,320
Speaker 1: at me. I'm wearing pants every single day to class

712
00:36:20,360 --> 00:36:23,400
Speaker 1: because I don't want people to look at me differently.

713
00:36:24,719 --> 00:36:28,239
Speaker 1: And then it was something in my head clicked. I mean,

714
00:36:28,320 --> 00:36:30,520
Speaker 1: from early on, I always had that sixth sense of humor.

715
00:36:30,560 --> 00:36:33,080
Speaker 1: I always had that stubbornness or I always had to

716
00:36:33,080 --> 00:36:36,640
Speaker 1: be the jokester on the team and the classroom. And

717
00:36:36,640 --> 00:36:39,480
Speaker 1: then I started using that to help me and to

718
00:36:39,560 --> 00:36:43,759
Speaker 1: benefit me, especially on my social media, because when I

719
00:36:43,800 --> 00:36:47,520
Speaker 1: started joking around, it allowed other people to open up.

720
00:36:47,680 --> 00:36:52,279
Speaker 1: And mentally, it was like it was me thinking, Okay, well,

721
00:36:52,320 --> 00:36:54,239
Speaker 1: if I could just get people to laugh, then they

722
00:36:54,280 --> 00:36:56,680
Speaker 1: won't treat me differently. They won't treat it like a

723
00:36:56,680 --> 00:37:01,640
Speaker 1: big deal. And I think every day, like my social

724
00:37:01,680 --> 00:37:03,920
Speaker 1: I just use my Instagram and I would just like post,

725
00:37:04,120 --> 00:37:06,200
Speaker 1: I would post things and the caption would be all

726
00:37:06,320 --> 00:37:09,600
Speaker 1: jokes aside. And I think that just helped me because

727
00:37:09,600 --> 00:37:13,359
Speaker 1: it never really made me think too much about it.

728
00:37:14,520 --> 00:37:17,640
Speaker 1: And then once I received my everyday walking prosthetic, it

729
00:37:17,800 --> 00:37:22,040
Speaker 1: was more so of Okay, now I have to walk

730
00:37:22,080 --> 00:37:25,440
Speaker 1: perfectly so that people don't stare at me, or people

731
00:37:25,760 --> 00:37:28,400
Speaker 1: or I just I didn't want the pity in the beginning,

732
00:37:28,440 --> 00:37:30,399
Speaker 1: where I like, when I look back on it now,

733
00:37:31,080 --> 00:37:32,960
Speaker 1: I had nothing to be ashamed of. I had nothing

734
00:37:32,960 --> 00:37:35,920
Speaker 1: to try to fix. Did I have to portray a

735
00:37:35,920 --> 00:37:38,719
Speaker 1: message out to the world with like my sense of

736
00:37:38,800 --> 00:37:42,040
Speaker 1: humor to allow other people to be okay with my disability. No,

737
00:37:42,120 --> 00:37:44,759
Speaker 1: I shouldn't have to do that. But what I will

738
00:37:44,800 --> 00:37:49,200
Speaker 1: say is it helped me mentally because I always was

739
00:37:49,200 --> 00:37:52,080
Speaker 1: that stubborn person of It's like, okay, I'm going to

740
00:37:52,120 --> 00:37:53,560
Speaker 1: make I'm just going to make a joke of it,

741
00:37:53,600 --> 00:37:57,200
Speaker 1: and hopefully that allowed it. And honestly, yes, it helped

742
00:37:57,239 --> 00:38:00,520
Speaker 1: other people connect and be more comfort with it, But

743
00:38:00,560 --> 00:38:04,440
Speaker 1: then it helped me be more comfortable with myself. I

744
00:38:04,480 --> 00:38:06,160
Speaker 1: remember when my friend picked me up from the hot

745
00:38:06,239 --> 00:38:07,560
Speaker 1: or picked me up right when I got out of

746
00:38:07,600 --> 00:38:10,000
Speaker 1: the hospital. I wasn't even home for ten minutes, and

747
00:38:10,040 --> 00:38:11,759
Speaker 1: I had my friends come and pick me up because

748
00:38:11,760 --> 00:38:13,479
Speaker 1: I was like, I don't want to sit at home,

749
00:38:13,960 --> 00:38:17,400
Speaker 1: and I'm literally in the car taking selfies with my

750
00:38:17,560 --> 00:38:19,759
Speaker 1: nub like I'm lifting my nug and I'm like, I'm

751
00:38:19,800 --> 00:38:23,359
Speaker 1: taking selfies and I was just I mean that, and

752
00:38:23,400 --> 00:38:26,560
Speaker 1: she was taking pictures of me doing that, and it's

753
00:38:26,640 --> 00:38:28,600
Speaker 1: it's crazy to think about, because you know, I don't

754
00:38:28,640 --> 00:38:30,440
Speaker 1: always think of like how was I able to go

755
00:38:30,480 --> 00:38:34,240
Speaker 1: through that mental toughness, in that mental block of being

756
00:38:34,280 --> 00:38:37,359
Speaker 1: okay with my accident, And to be honest with you,

757
00:38:38,280 --> 00:38:40,600
Speaker 1: it's taken me a lot. I mean it's taken year.

758
00:38:40,760 --> 00:38:44,799
Speaker 1: It took years because obviously, once you're comfortable with one thing,

759
00:38:44,960 --> 00:38:48,319
Speaker 1: something else, something else happens, and something else is new.

760
00:38:49,280 --> 00:38:51,920
Speaker 1: I wasn't in a relationship, I didn't have a boyfriend

761
00:38:51,960 --> 00:38:53,759
Speaker 1: when I lost my leg, and that was something that

762
00:38:53,840 --> 00:38:56,080
Speaker 1: I was thinking very early on. It was like, Okay, well,

763
00:38:56,120 --> 00:38:59,840
Speaker 1: who's going to love me? Because I view myself as broken,

764
00:39:00,360 --> 00:39:03,640
Speaker 1: which is I view that as something terrible that I

765
00:39:03,680 --> 00:39:07,120
Speaker 1: even even had to think about that. But I was thinking,

766
00:39:07,120 --> 00:39:08,600
Speaker 1: how am I going to love somebody else? But I

767
00:39:08,640 --> 00:39:12,920
Speaker 1: can't even love myself? And one of my friends literally

768
00:39:12,920 --> 00:39:15,239
Speaker 1: told me, she's like, no, well you're prettier without your leg.

769
00:39:15,440 --> 00:39:18,719
Speaker 1: She's like your aura, how you present yourself, You are

770
00:39:18,760 --> 00:39:21,040
Speaker 1: more gorgeous without it. And ever since she said that

771
00:39:21,080 --> 00:39:22,879
Speaker 1: to me, I just I owned it.

772
00:39:23,440 --> 00:39:28,319
Speaker 2: Whether or not this level of inquiry is due to

773
00:39:29,000 --> 00:39:33,080
Speaker 2: your accident. The sentiment of I have to get to

774
00:39:33,120 --> 00:39:35,760
Speaker 2: a place where I can love myself so that someone

775
00:39:35,800 --> 00:39:39,080
Speaker 2: else can then love me as well is something that

776
00:39:39,239 --> 00:39:42,959
Speaker 2: is so profound and so resonant. Right, so many people

777
00:39:42,960 --> 00:39:45,520
Speaker 2: listening to this right now, hearing you say that and

778
00:39:45,560 --> 00:39:50,800
Speaker 2: being like, huh, yeah, yeah, and that relationship with self

779
00:39:50,920 --> 00:39:52,960
Speaker 2: right is ever evolving.

780
00:39:53,239 --> 00:39:54,959
Speaker 3: But I do believe that.

781
00:39:56,400 --> 00:39:59,880
Speaker 2: As women, so often we're growing up and we are

782
00:40:00,120 --> 00:40:02,800
Speaker 2: told someone else is going to come into the picture

783
00:40:02,880 --> 00:40:07,760
Speaker 2: and complete you, and I completely disagree with that sentiment.

784
00:40:08,080 --> 00:40:11,479
Speaker 2: I have always been of the mindset that I want

785
00:40:11,520 --> 00:40:13,680
Speaker 2: to be you know, I will never be a hundred,

786
00:40:13,680 --> 00:40:15,080
Speaker 2: but I want to be working to get to one

787
00:40:15,160 --> 00:40:17,600
Speaker 2: hundred on my own and meet someone who's doing that

788
00:40:17,680 --> 00:40:21,399
Speaker 2: same work, and together we are so great, but individually

789
00:40:21,560 --> 00:40:23,200
Speaker 2: we're really freaking awesome too.

790
00:40:23,480 --> 00:40:26,080
Speaker 1: That's it's so great that you bring up a point

791
00:40:26,120 --> 00:40:28,640
Speaker 1: like that, because I do know so many people who

792
00:40:28,960 --> 00:40:30,960
Speaker 1: want relationships left and right. They just want to be

793
00:40:30,960 --> 00:40:32,759
Speaker 1: in a relationship. They want to be in a relationship,

794
00:40:33,560 --> 00:40:35,520
Speaker 1: And what I try to tell them is you need

795
00:40:35,560 --> 00:40:37,719
Speaker 1: to look at yourself in the mirror, and you need

796
00:40:37,760 --> 00:40:41,759
Speaker 1: to be loving of yourself, comfortable with yourself before you

797
00:40:41,760 --> 00:40:45,000
Speaker 1: can give that to anybody else, you know what I mean. Listen,

798
00:40:45,600 --> 00:40:49,319
Speaker 1: was I looking for a relationship when I met Absolutely not.

799
00:40:49,520 --> 00:40:51,840
Speaker 1: I literally was not. I mean, like, I was just

800
00:40:52,000 --> 00:40:54,719
Speaker 1: living my life the way I wanted to. Obviously, yeah,

801
00:40:54,719 --> 00:40:56,680
Speaker 1: it would be nice to share my life with somebody,

802
00:40:56,680 --> 00:40:59,560
Speaker 1: but it wasn't something that like I needed at that point.

803
00:40:59,680 --> 00:41:01,800
Speaker 1: And then when it happened, it was like, oh my god. Okay,

804
00:41:01,880 --> 00:41:05,200
Speaker 1: I get the saying that. Honestly, it happens to you

805
00:41:05,239 --> 00:41:07,399
Speaker 1: when you're not looking for it, when you're not trying

806
00:41:07,719 --> 00:41:11,080
Speaker 1: every single day or every single weekend to find someone new,

807
00:41:11,920 --> 00:41:15,960
Speaker 1: and you just live life for yourself. I mean, it's

808
00:41:16,160 --> 00:41:16,920
Speaker 1: a game changer.

809
00:41:17,360 --> 00:41:21,520
Speaker 2: Talk to me about twenty nineteen and embarking on this

810
00:41:21,640 --> 00:41:26,279
Speaker 2: journey within track and field again, a sentence that was

811
00:41:26,400 --> 00:41:31,120
Speaker 2: certainly not in your vocabulary before July thirtieth, twenty sixteen.

812
00:41:31,440 --> 00:41:33,439
Speaker 1: Oh my god. No, Yeah, I hated running. I hated

813
00:41:33,480 --> 00:41:35,520
Speaker 1: everything to do with it. If you mean still to

814
00:41:35,560 --> 00:41:38,120
Speaker 1: this day, if you go back and you ask or

815
00:41:38,239 --> 00:41:41,360
Speaker 1: talk to my high school coaches, even my college coach,

816
00:41:42,360 --> 00:41:44,440
Speaker 1: they would laugh, they laugh in your face because they're

817
00:41:44,440 --> 00:41:47,680
Speaker 1: just like this girl is now a Paralympian for track

818
00:41:47,719 --> 00:41:51,640
Speaker 1: and field in twenty nineteen, when I graduated, obviously didn't

819
00:41:51,640 --> 00:41:53,479
Speaker 1: want to hang out my athletic career just yet because

820
00:41:53,520 --> 00:41:56,399
Speaker 1: I'd only been running for about two years. And when

821
00:41:56,440 --> 00:41:59,239
Speaker 1: I returned to play my junior season, someone from the

822
00:41:59,320 --> 00:42:01,839
Speaker 1: US Paralymic Track and Field World reached out asking if

823
00:42:01,840 --> 00:42:04,920
Speaker 1: I've ever thought about competing, and I thought, you know,

824
00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:08,799
Speaker 1: this would be an incredible opportunity to represent my country.

825
00:42:08,880 --> 00:42:11,800
Speaker 1: And when I was in the hospital, I was watching

826
00:42:11,840 --> 00:42:14,600
Speaker 1: the Olympic Games. It was at the end of July

827
00:42:15,080 --> 00:42:19,279
Speaker 1: of twenty sixteen, and I kept seeing commercials or promotions

828
00:42:19,320 --> 00:42:21,759
Speaker 1: for the Paralympic Games. But obviously, in the back of

829
00:42:21,800 --> 00:42:23,320
Speaker 1: my head, I'm like, I don't even know what sport

830
00:42:23,360 --> 00:42:29,000
Speaker 1: I would play. And when I received that message, obviously

831
00:42:29,120 --> 00:42:30,760
Speaker 1: was in the back of my head and I'm thinking, Okay,

832
00:42:30,760 --> 00:42:34,040
Speaker 1: this would be very cool. But I chose to my

833
00:42:34,160 --> 00:42:37,000
Speaker 1: senior year just spend it only worrying about lacrosse because

834
00:42:37,040 --> 00:42:38,680
Speaker 1: it was I was going to be done with lacrosse

835
00:42:38,719 --> 00:42:41,600
Speaker 1: after that for the rest of my life. And once

836
00:42:41,640 --> 00:42:44,160
Speaker 1: I was done, that's when I started doing the research.

837
00:42:44,719 --> 00:42:47,000
Speaker 1: I found a track meet that was in Arizona, was

838
00:42:47,040 --> 00:42:50,480
Speaker 1: a disabled track meet called the Desert Challenge Games. Signed

839
00:42:50,480 --> 00:42:54,239
Speaker 1: myself up for it, had no expectations. One of my

840
00:42:54,360 --> 00:42:58,440
Speaker 1: roommates that I roomed with a couple times in college,

841
00:42:58,480 --> 00:43:00,759
Speaker 1: she did track and field that you role, so she

842
00:43:00,800 --> 00:43:03,160
Speaker 1: was kind of give me some tips. But I didn't

843
00:43:03,160 --> 00:43:04,680
Speaker 1: have a track coach. I had no idea how to

844
00:43:04,680 --> 00:43:06,880
Speaker 1: come out of starting blocks. I was literally trying to

845
00:43:06,920 --> 00:43:10,000
Speaker 1: google above me eputs coming out of starting blocks. Nothing

846
00:43:10,080 --> 00:43:12,840
Speaker 1: was coming up. I was like stalking all these people

847
00:43:12,880 --> 00:43:16,480
Speaker 1: that compete, like Scout Bassett, all these all these big names,

848
00:43:16,840 --> 00:43:21,040
Speaker 1: seeing what they do. And then I showed up for

849
00:43:21,239 --> 00:43:24,920
Speaker 1: the track being in Arizona, literally ten percent confident my

850
00:43:25,640 --> 00:43:29,000
Speaker 1: athletic abilities, and my mom traveled with me. It was

851
00:43:29,080 --> 00:43:32,200
Speaker 1: very funny, and so did my processus. And then I

852
00:43:32,280 --> 00:43:35,200
Speaker 1: realized the entire US Paralympic national track and field team

853
00:43:35,239 --> 00:43:37,120
Speaker 1: was going to be there, all the head coaches, and

854
00:43:37,160 --> 00:43:39,840
Speaker 1: I was going to be competing against the reigning national champion,

855
00:43:39,960 --> 00:43:43,680
Speaker 1: which was Scout Bassett, and I wanted to go home.

856
00:43:43,800 --> 00:43:45,600
Speaker 1: I was like, I don't want to do this. I'm

857
00:43:45,719 --> 00:43:47,160
Speaker 1: I'm I don't even know how to come out of

858
00:43:47,200 --> 00:43:49,799
Speaker 1: the starting blocks. I'm gonna fall. Start, I'm gonna fall.

859
00:43:49,920 --> 00:43:53,120
Speaker 1: Something's gonna happen. And my mom is great because she's

860
00:43:53,160 --> 00:43:54,799
Speaker 1: the one that keeps me in check and in line.

861
00:43:54,840 --> 00:43:57,040
Speaker 1: She's like, shut up, like, I don't care I crawl

862
00:43:57,080 --> 00:43:59,200
Speaker 1: across the finish line. You're gonna crawl across. You're gonna

863
00:43:59,200 --> 00:44:00,759
Speaker 1: get across the finish lin and you're gonna be fine.

864
00:44:01,719 --> 00:44:04,439
Speaker 1: And then the night before the race, I was joking

865
00:44:04,440 --> 00:44:06,320
Speaker 1: around with my mom saying, hey, Mom, like, wouldn't it

866
00:44:06,320 --> 00:44:09,200
Speaker 1: be funny if I won? And she completely shot that down.

867
00:44:09,320 --> 00:44:11,120
Speaker 1: She was like, no Ah, there's no way you're winning

868
00:44:11,120 --> 00:44:14,799
Speaker 1: this race. This girl, wow, this girl's been doing this

869
00:44:14,920 --> 00:44:18,480
Speaker 1: for eight years or however long. Just use her to

870
00:44:18,520 --> 00:44:21,000
Speaker 1: motivate you to go faster. She my mom is that

871
00:44:21,080 --> 00:44:24,000
Speaker 1: type of person that she doesn't want she won't get

872
00:44:24,040 --> 00:44:25,880
Speaker 1: her hopes up about anything, so she didn't want me

873
00:44:25,920 --> 00:44:28,360
Speaker 1: to get my hopes up. And then waking up the

874
00:44:28,440 --> 00:44:32,000
Speaker 1: day of the race and getting to the competition venue,

875
00:44:32,520 --> 00:44:34,960
Speaker 1: I don't think I've ever been so nervous in my

876
00:44:35,080 --> 00:44:37,080
Speaker 1: entire life because growing up I was always a part

877
00:44:37,080 --> 00:44:40,440
Speaker 1: of team sports, so having to actually compete in an

878
00:44:40,480 --> 00:44:43,520
Speaker 1: individual sport and having all the pressure beyond me was

879
00:44:43,560 --> 00:44:48,280
Speaker 1: just something that I wasn't comfortable with. And I'm literally

880
00:44:48,360 --> 00:44:51,440
Speaker 1: looking around, I'm seeing what everyone's wearing, and like female

881
00:44:51,440 --> 00:44:54,200
Speaker 1: track and field athletes were literally nothing. They wear sports bras,

882
00:44:54,320 --> 00:44:58,680
Speaker 1: spandex or underwear. I'm literally wearing like a baggy tank top,

883
00:44:58,760 --> 00:45:01,560
Speaker 1: baggy shorts. They say, like, look cross on it, so

884
00:45:01,640 --> 00:45:04,160
Speaker 1: already I look as though I do not belong. And

885
00:45:04,680 --> 00:45:07,760
Speaker 1: then when the gun went off halfway through the race,

886
00:45:07,840 --> 00:45:11,280
Speaker 1: I heard my mom literally screeching because I was winning.

887
00:45:11,760 --> 00:45:14,680
Speaker 1: When I crossed the finish line, not only did I win,

888
00:45:15,000 --> 00:45:18,040
Speaker 1: but I also I also hit the qualifying times to

889
00:45:18,080 --> 00:45:20,279
Speaker 1: be part of the US Paralympic national track and field team.

890
00:45:20,440 --> 00:45:22,359
Speaker 1: It didn't look pretty at all because I don't know

891
00:45:22,400 --> 00:45:24,880
Speaker 1: what the running form is. I've ran with the lacrosse

892
00:45:24,880 --> 00:45:28,920
Speaker 1: sick for however many years, and that's really I mean.

893
00:45:28,960 --> 00:45:31,080
Speaker 1: When I got home, that's when I thought to myself, Okay,

894
00:45:31,080 --> 00:45:33,400
Speaker 1: I need a coach now because I cannot do this

895
00:45:33,480 --> 00:45:36,320
Speaker 1: on my own. And we had World Championships in Dubai

896
00:45:36,680 --> 00:45:39,279
Speaker 1: four months later, so I was trying to qualify for that.

897
00:45:39,360 --> 00:45:41,640
Speaker 1: I didn't really understand how to qualify for it. So

898
00:45:41,680 --> 00:45:45,640
Speaker 1: it was like all these things were happening. And then

899
00:45:45,640 --> 00:45:47,520
Speaker 1: once you're a part of the or once you hit

900
00:45:47,560 --> 00:45:50,960
Speaker 1: the qualifying times when you're doing the Paralympic Games, you

901
00:45:51,000 --> 00:45:55,360
Speaker 1: need to go through national classification and international classification. Basically

902
00:45:55,360 --> 00:45:58,279
Speaker 1: what classification means. It's like a doctor's appointment. So you

903
00:45:58,320 --> 00:46:01,200
Speaker 1: walk into a room, they analyze your disability and they

904
00:46:01,200 --> 00:46:04,040
Speaker 1: put you into a group. Mine is very easy. I'm

905
00:46:04,040 --> 00:46:06,680
Speaker 1: an above the imputee, so like all right, T sixty three,

906
00:46:06,760 --> 00:46:09,160
Speaker 1: you're an above the emputee. But for people who are

907
00:46:09,200 --> 00:46:12,399
Speaker 1: visually impaired, people who have superba palsy, it's a lot

908
00:46:12,520 --> 00:46:15,960
Speaker 1: longer process because they're very thorough and they want to

909
00:46:15,960 --> 00:46:20,239
Speaker 1: put you into a classification group that you're meant to

910
00:46:20,239 --> 00:46:21,560
Speaker 1: fit in. They don't want to put you in a

911
00:46:21,600 --> 00:46:23,560
Speaker 1: group and then you kill everybody, or they don't want

912
00:46:23,600 --> 00:46:24,920
Speaker 1: to put you into a group and then you're getting

913
00:46:24,960 --> 00:46:29,759
Speaker 1: killed by everybody. So then I went through national classification,

914
00:46:29,800 --> 00:46:31,520
Speaker 1: and then I need to go to I needed to

915
00:46:31,600 --> 00:46:35,240
Speaker 1: find an international classification opportunity and that was in Paris.

916
00:46:35,320 --> 00:46:37,959
Speaker 1: So I was able to go to Paris, I think,

917
00:46:38,040 --> 00:46:40,600
Speaker 1: and it was July or August of twenty nineteen with

918
00:46:40,600 --> 00:46:43,279
Speaker 1: my mom, and then I was finally officially able to

919
00:46:43,320 --> 00:46:45,440
Speaker 1: be a part of the team, and then I was

920
00:46:45,480 --> 00:46:49,440
Speaker 1: able to qualify for World Championships. So it was very quick,

921
00:46:49,560 --> 00:46:52,520
Speaker 1: but it was very cool experience.

922
00:46:53,160 --> 00:46:57,480
Speaker 2: I know today you're sponsored by Noble, but at that time,

923
00:46:57,640 --> 00:47:01,120
Speaker 2: when you started to have all of these inspirations, you

924
00:47:01,160 --> 00:47:04,360
Speaker 2: talked about a running blade being between ten and thirty

925
00:47:04,440 --> 00:47:07,239
Speaker 2: k That's only the tip of the iceberg. So in

926
00:47:07,280 --> 00:47:11,960
Speaker 2: your mind, how is this feasible knowing the costs that

927
00:47:12,000 --> 00:47:13,560
Speaker 2: were about to be associated with it.

928
00:47:14,800 --> 00:47:18,160
Speaker 1: Obviously that's one of the main issues for Paralympic athletes.

929
00:47:18,320 --> 00:47:20,400
Speaker 1: When I graduated college, I was back home living with

930
00:47:20,440 --> 00:47:23,160
Speaker 1: my parents, so I was telling myself, I'm going to

931
00:47:23,200 --> 00:47:25,040
Speaker 1: ride this out as long as possible so I don't

932
00:47:25,080 --> 00:47:27,680
Speaker 1: have to have too many bills to pay. It's not

933
00:47:27,719 --> 00:47:29,680
Speaker 1: about I mean, it is about your accolades, but it's

934
00:47:29,680 --> 00:47:32,880
Speaker 1: also how you portray yourself and just fight for that.

935
00:47:33,040 --> 00:47:35,400
Speaker 1: I mean, the hardest part is, I think getting an

936
00:47:35,400 --> 00:47:38,680
Speaker 1: agent that you believe in. I found an agent very

937
00:47:38,680 --> 00:47:42,400
Speaker 1: early on kimse A Audi from Blue Sky Sports, and

938
00:47:42,680 --> 00:47:45,400
Speaker 1: I told her, told her my goals. I was like, listen,

939
00:47:45,440 --> 00:47:48,439
Speaker 1: I would love to be a motivational speaker. I would

940
00:47:48,520 --> 00:47:51,600
Speaker 1: love to be able to be a full time athlete.

941
00:47:51,600 --> 00:47:56,440
Speaker 1: I't have a full time job. And when COVID happened, honestly,

942
00:47:56,920 --> 00:48:00,399
Speaker 1: it helped with my motivational speaking because I was able

943
00:48:00,440 --> 00:48:02,400
Speaker 1: to come up with a stump speech. I was able

944
00:48:02,400 --> 00:48:05,520
Speaker 1: to do zoom calls back and forth literally every single day,

945
00:48:05,719 --> 00:48:08,360
Speaker 1: and my agency would just critique me and everything I

946
00:48:08,880 --> 00:48:12,160
Speaker 1: was doing. So once I was able to get a

947
00:48:12,200 --> 00:48:16,400
Speaker 1: stump speech down and finally like excel that career and

948
00:48:16,440 --> 00:48:19,520
Speaker 1: like get that career, started that and then I started

949
00:48:19,520 --> 00:48:21,960
Speaker 1: getting my name out there more, I was able to

950
00:48:21,960 --> 00:48:25,000
Speaker 1: do Survivor. But I mean, I was very grateful to

951
00:48:25,200 --> 00:48:27,359
Speaker 1: have signed with Noble. I was a huge Noble fan

952
00:48:27,440 --> 00:48:29,560
Speaker 1: when I was in college because they're, you know, a

953
00:48:29,560 --> 00:48:34,440
Speaker 1: Boston based company. Now now they're definitely have expanded. I've

954
00:48:34,480 --> 00:48:36,759
Speaker 1: been very fortunate and very lucky, and I know a

955
00:48:36,800 --> 00:48:40,759
Speaker 1: lot of other athletes it's not as easy for them.

956
00:48:40,920 --> 00:48:44,600
Speaker 1: And I think we're you know, we're getting there. We're

957
00:48:44,640 --> 00:48:48,960
Speaker 1: trying to create the movement and the patterns of normalizing

958
00:48:49,200 --> 00:48:51,759
Speaker 1: and getting the word out there for Paralympic sport. I mean,

959
00:48:51,880 --> 00:48:54,640
Speaker 1: Paris was incredible. We had so many people watching, we

960
00:48:54,680 --> 00:48:57,640
Speaker 1: had sold out stadium, which is I mean, it was

961
00:48:57,680 --> 00:48:59,880
Speaker 1: amazing and it's everything that we need to bring us

962
00:48:59,920 --> 00:49:01,480
Speaker 1: into LA twenty twenty eight.

963
00:49:01,719 --> 00:49:05,520
Speaker 2: Speaking of being a keynote speaker, being a CUP public speaker.

964
00:49:06,080 --> 00:49:09,520
Speaker 2: About a year ago, now you gave your first ted X,

965
00:49:09,680 --> 00:49:13,640
Speaker 2: which was so remarkable to watch, and it had three

966
00:49:13,719 --> 00:49:17,480
Speaker 2: really resounding lessons in it that you took away from

967
00:49:17,800 --> 00:49:20,799
Speaker 2: your injury and your journey thus far, becoming comfortable with

968
00:49:20,840 --> 00:49:24,760
Speaker 2: being uncomfortable, using self doubt as motivation, and the importance

969
00:49:24,760 --> 00:49:27,040
Speaker 2: of surrounding yourself with the right team, something that you

970
00:49:27,080 --> 00:49:30,760
Speaker 2: and I have spoken a lot about today. Right now,

971
00:49:30,800 --> 00:49:33,440
Speaker 2: when you think about your life as it stands, what

972
00:49:33,680 --> 00:49:37,839
Speaker 2: is the most uncomfortable thing that you deal with regularly?

973
00:49:39,320 --> 00:49:43,279
Speaker 1: That's a great question. I think the most uncomfortable thing

974
00:49:43,320 --> 00:49:46,800
Speaker 1: that I deal with is the self doubt that I

975
00:49:47,600 --> 00:49:50,239
Speaker 1: continue to have. You know, every single new adventure that

976
00:49:50,280 --> 00:49:52,520
Speaker 1: I try, I doubt myself that I don't know what

977
00:49:52,560 --> 00:49:55,400
Speaker 1: it is. When I was going into Paris, I was

978
00:49:55,440 --> 00:49:58,880
Speaker 1: coming off of the best season I've ever had, you know,

979
00:49:58,960 --> 00:50:02,440
Speaker 1: as a track athlete, I was able to jump five meters.

980
00:50:02,440 --> 00:50:04,799
Speaker 1: We talked about early on how there was only three

981
00:50:04,840 --> 00:50:07,040
Speaker 1: above me iputies in the world that I ever did it.

982
00:50:07,080 --> 00:50:08,600
Speaker 1: I was able to do it in my first season,

983
00:50:09,000 --> 00:50:10,560
Speaker 1: and not only did I do it once, I did

984
00:50:10,600 --> 00:50:13,200
Speaker 1: it nine competitions in a row. And then when I

985
00:50:13,239 --> 00:50:19,000
Speaker 1: was mentally leading up to Paris, I was thinking about

986
00:50:19,040 --> 00:50:21,280
Speaker 1: all the wrong things. I was thinking about the weather,

987
00:50:21,480 --> 00:50:24,680
Speaker 1: the wind, things that I can't control, and it was

988
00:50:24,800 --> 00:50:28,440
Speaker 1: very difficult because it changed my whole mindset and it

989
00:50:28,600 --> 00:50:33,320
Speaker 1: just made me not act like I was acting all season.

990
00:50:33,719 --> 00:50:36,520
Speaker 1: And when I got to Paris, I was very confident,

991
00:50:36,600 --> 00:50:38,959
Speaker 1: but I was also in a very uncomfortable position because

992
00:50:39,000 --> 00:50:42,880
Speaker 1: I wasn't feeling how I was feeling all season, and

993
00:50:44,400 --> 00:50:49,120
Speaker 1: that was me not prioritizing the mental aspect of the sport.

994
00:50:49,560 --> 00:50:52,480
Speaker 1: And you know, it was very easy for me to

995
00:50:52,480 --> 00:50:54,239
Speaker 1: start long jumping in the beginning because I had no

996
00:50:54,280 --> 00:50:56,200
Speaker 1: idea what I was doing. And I, you know, I

997
00:50:56,239 --> 00:50:58,840
Speaker 1: am very coachable. I if you tell me how to

998
00:50:58,880 --> 00:51:00,719
Speaker 1: do something, I'll figure out way to do it. But

999
00:51:00,719 --> 00:51:03,319
Speaker 1: then once I understand and once I realize how to

1000
00:51:03,360 --> 00:51:05,799
Speaker 1: do it, that's when I start to overthink everything and

1001
00:51:05,840 --> 00:51:08,960
Speaker 1: I try to critique the little things in me and

1002
00:51:08,960 --> 00:51:11,600
Speaker 1: myself and my coach. We were trying to get that

1003
00:51:11,760 --> 00:51:14,120
Speaker 1: extra oom from my blade so that I could break

1004
00:51:14,120 --> 00:51:16,279
Speaker 1: the world record because I think I jumped like five

1005
00:51:16,320 --> 00:51:19,719
Speaker 1: point twenty nine meters and the world record was five

1006
00:51:19,760 --> 00:51:22,239
Speaker 1: point four to six meters, which is only like, it's

1007
00:51:22,360 --> 00:51:25,480
Speaker 1: not that far off. So We're trying to do everything

1008
00:51:25,520 --> 00:51:28,000
Speaker 1: possible so that I could do this at the Games,

1009
00:51:28,080 --> 00:51:30,719
Speaker 1: and I am just worrying and thinking about things that

1010
00:51:30,800 --> 00:51:33,880
Speaker 1: I shouldn't be worrying or thinking about. I needed to

1011
00:51:34,600 --> 00:51:39,080
Speaker 1: mentally take a step back and appreciate the long road

1012
00:51:39,120 --> 00:51:42,120
Speaker 1: it took to get there, and it just put me

1013
00:51:42,160 --> 00:51:44,840
Speaker 1: in It was like I already knew the outcome going

1014
00:51:44,880 --> 00:51:48,759
Speaker 1: into it, and I think I I mean, honestly, there

1015
00:51:48,760 --> 00:51:51,080
Speaker 1: were so many things that I could have done differently.

1016
00:51:51,160 --> 00:51:54,520
Speaker 1: But when I look back on it now and I

1017
00:51:54,560 --> 00:51:57,840
Speaker 1: think about it, it's it's something that I need to

1018
00:51:57,880 --> 00:52:00,719
Speaker 1: work and do better at. As an athlete. You know,

1019
00:52:00,800 --> 00:52:02,600
Speaker 1: it's very easy for me to just show up and

1020
00:52:02,640 --> 00:52:04,360
Speaker 1: do the best that I can, But then the hardest

1021
00:52:04,360 --> 00:52:07,759
Speaker 1: part is to mentally figure all these things out. You know,

1022
00:52:08,160 --> 00:52:10,799
Speaker 1: wouldn't you think after going through everything that I've been

1023
00:52:10,880 --> 00:52:13,719
Speaker 1: through and having getting to accomplish so much that I

1024
00:52:13,760 --> 00:52:16,279
Speaker 1: wouldn't deal with self doubt. Absolutely not. I am a

1025
00:52:16,360 --> 00:52:18,720
Speaker 1: human being and I deal with it just like everybody

1026
00:52:18,719 --> 00:52:21,680
Speaker 1: else deals with it. But what I jumped, I think

1027
00:52:21,719 --> 00:52:24,880
Speaker 1: I jumped like four point sixty six meters in Paris

1028
00:52:25,200 --> 00:52:27,680
Speaker 1: and that wasn't even close to what I was jumping

1029
00:52:27,680 --> 00:52:31,200
Speaker 1: all season, And that just shows it's, you know, there's

1030
00:52:31,280 --> 00:52:34,920
Speaker 1: things that I need to work on other than practicing.

1031
00:52:34,960 --> 00:52:38,839
Speaker 1: It's my mental health. It's it's working with a sports psychologist,

1032
00:52:38,920 --> 00:52:42,200
Speaker 1: getting to visualize everything and getting to and not worrying

1033
00:52:42,239 --> 00:52:44,920
Speaker 1: about you know, I'm literally on my weather app. I'm

1034
00:52:44,920 --> 00:52:47,000
Speaker 1: looking at the wind gage and I'm trying to think

1035
00:52:47,400 --> 00:52:50,600
Speaker 1: the wind going to be because obviously I knew that

1036
00:52:50,800 --> 00:52:52,879
Speaker 1: in the stadium it was swirling. So I was like, Okay,

1037
00:52:52,920 --> 00:52:54,799
Speaker 1: I just need to find the perfect moment. When I

1038
00:52:54,840 --> 00:52:57,359
Speaker 1: go into LA twenty twenty eight, it's like, Okay, I'm

1039
00:52:57,360 --> 00:52:59,839
Speaker 1: bringing home that gold medal because I'm thick of it.

1040
00:53:00,120 --> 00:53:01,040
Speaker 1: We'll figure it out.

1041
00:53:01,239 --> 00:53:03,760
Speaker 3: You live and you learn, right, yeah, and listen.

1042
00:53:03,920 --> 00:53:07,400
Speaker 2: It's understandable though, like in any situation where it's a

1043
00:53:07,480 --> 00:53:10,680
Speaker 2: high stakes moment where you really deeply, passionately care about

1044
00:53:10,680 --> 00:53:15,239
Speaker 2: something you are going to have all of these questions, right,

1045
00:53:15,280 --> 00:53:17,640
Speaker 2: you're doing what feels like the best you can with

1046
00:53:17,680 --> 00:53:21,480
Speaker 2: what you have. I can totally relate to, like checking

1047
00:53:21,520 --> 00:53:24,799
Speaker 2: the weather or just trying to control things that are

1048
00:53:24,840 --> 00:53:27,960
Speaker 2: beyond your control simply because you're just grasping for it.

1049
00:53:28,239 --> 00:53:31,759
Speaker 1: How do you mentally go into a marathon? My brain

1050
00:53:31,800 --> 00:53:34,239
Speaker 1: would explode if I you know what I mean in

1051
00:53:34,360 --> 00:53:36,960
Speaker 1: going into it when I mean my fiance ran the

1052
00:53:36,960 --> 00:53:39,799
Speaker 1: Boston Marathon, and leading up to it, I didn't know

1053
00:53:39,840 --> 00:53:42,200
Speaker 1: what to say to him because I was kind of

1054
00:53:42,239 --> 00:53:45,040
Speaker 1: just letting him. I mean, he obviously put in the work,

1055
00:53:45,080 --> 00:53:47,200
Speaker 1: but then like once you're the big days there and

1056
00:53:47,320 --> 00:53:49,080
Speaker 1: like you want to get a good time at.

1057
00:53:48,960 --> 00:53:51,239
Speaker 2: The end of it, all you can do is the

1058
00:53:51,239 --> 00:53:53,000
Speaker 2: best you can with what you have. And I think

1059
00:53:53,040 --> 00:53:56,200
Speaker 2: that I, at least at the very least. That doesn't

1060
00:53:56,239 --> 00:53:58,719
Speaker 2: mean that you might not be frustrated or angry if

1061
00:53:58,719 --> 00:54:01,879
Speaker 2: a scenario is less than I deal. But I've had

1062
00:54:01,920 --> 00:54:04,520
Speaker 2: circumstances in the past that were less than ideal, and

1063
00:54:04,560 --> 00:54:06,040
Speaker 2: I showed up on the day and I gave it

1064
00:54:06,080 --> 00:54:08,600
Speaker 2: everything that I have and I'm better for it. Just

1065
00:54:08,680 --> 00:54:11,760
Speaker 2: like you talking about your experience, you know you didn't

1066
00:54:11,800 --> 00:54:14,480
Speaker 2: want to lose your leg in a mopad accident. But

1067
00:54:14,600 --> 00:54:17,440
Speaker 2: now you credit that moped accident as being the thing

1068
00:54:17,480 --> 00:54:20,319
Speaker 2: that has made you exactly who you are today, and

1069
00:54:20,360 --> 00:54:22,000
Speaker 2: it's a person that you're proud of, and it's a

1070
00:54:22,040 --> 00:54:24,560
Speaker 2: person that you wouldn't change if you had the opportunity to.

1071
00:54:25,120 --> 00:54:28,279
Speaker 2: So I think that it is up to us to

1072
00:54:28,480 --> 00:54:33,040
Speaker 2: choose to take adversity and use it to our strength

1073
00:54:33,200 --> 00:54:33,920
Speaker 2: if possible.

1074
00:54:34,239 --> 00:54:35,680
Speaker 3: And again, to your point.

1075
00:54:35,520 --> 00:54:37,200
Speaker 2: It doesn't mean that there aren't going to be days

1076
00:54:37,200 --> 00:54:38,799
Speaker 2: where you're doing things and you're like, I'm not the

1077
00:54:38,840 --> 00:54:40,680
Speaker 2: most proud of the way that I handled that moment.

1078
00:54:41,040 --> 00:54:44,359
Speaker 2: But now having that experience in Paris, you can move

1079
00:54:44,360 --> 00:54:48,080
Speaker 2: forward knowing what you know now and choose to pivot

1080
00:54:48,160 --> 00:54:50,960
Speaker 2: if that feels right for you. I have to ask you, like,

1081
00:54:51,040 --> 00:54:53,600
Speaker 2: do you feel as though that you've forgiven yourself for

1082
00:54:53,760 --> 00:54:55,239
Speaker 2: how you handled that situation?

1083
00:54:57,520 --> 00:55:00,440
Speaker 1: Yes, I definitely I've forgiven myself. I I wish I

1084
00:55:00,520 --> 00:55:03,399
Speaker 1: attacked Paris how I attacked the trials, because I went

1085
00:55:03,400 --> 00:55:05,040
Speaker 1: into that I was like, this is in the bag.

1086
00:55:05,080 --> 00:55:06,879
Speaker 1: I know what I need to do. I jumped five

1087
00:55:06,960 --> 00:55:12,120
Speaker 1: twenty at Paralympic Trials and then we don't compete at all,

1088
00:55:12,239 --> 00:55:14,160
Speaker 1: and honestly, like my coach said something to me when

1089
00:55:14,160 --> 00:55:15,960
Speaker 1: I got back to California. He was like, I'm just

1090
00:55:16,000 --> 00:55:19,239
Speaker 1: like not seeing it and it was me overthinking everything,

1091
00:55:19,360 --> 00:55:23,160
Speaker 1: and that's when it started. It's that's when it started

1092
00:55:23,200 --> 00:55:25,720
Speaker 1: to kind of downfall. And then when I got to Paris,

1093
00:55:26,280 --> 00:55:28,920
Speaker 1: I couldn't jump over five meters I practice, I couldn't

1094
00:55:28,920 --> 00:55:30,640
Speaker 1: do it. I don't know what it was. And then

1095
00:55:30,680 --> 00:55:33,680
Speaker 1: the competition happened and I think on my third jump,

1096
00:55:33,760 --> 00:55:35,920
Speaker 1: I had a small to foul and when I look

1097
00:55:36,000 --> 00:55:38,120
Speaker 1: back on it, I think it would have gotten me

1098
00:55:38,640 --> 00:55:41,840
Speaker 1: a bronze medal. But then I'm thinking, Okay, but I fouled,

1099
00:55:41,840 --> 00:55:45,360
Speaker 1: so it doesn't count. It's nobody to argue with but myself.

1100
00:55:46,320 --> 00:55:49,080
Speaker 1: And then when I went back to my family's Airbnb

1101
00:55:49,280 --> 00:55:52,640
Speaker 1: and I'm with my fiance and I like, I held

1102
00:55:52,640 --> 00:55:54,440
Speaker 1: it in. I wasn't trying to cry in front of

1103
00:55:54,480 --> 00:55:56,880
Speaker 1: everybody because I just I didn't want to, but people

1104
00:55:57,000 --> 00:55:58,640
Speaker 1: could see that I was pissed, and I was just

1105
00:55:58,719 --> 00:56:02,279
Speaker 1: I felt so ashamed. I just felt so defeated in

1106
00:56:02,360 --> 00:56:05,120
Speaker 1: that moment. It's like I don't want to say that.

1107
00:56:05,200 --> 00:56:07,040
Speaker 1: Like that whole season was a waste, but like in

1108
00:56:07,120 --> 00:56:09,960
Speaker 1: my eyes, like it was just so it was such

1109
00:56:10,040 --> 00:56:12,719
Speaker 1: a tough pill to swallow. It would have been so

1110
00:56:12,800 --> 00:56:15,080
Speaker 1: much easier if I got fourth place and I jumped

1111
00:56:15,080 --> 00:56:17,960
Speaker 1: when I was jumping all season, but to literally not

1112
00:56:18,440 --> 00:56:21,440
Speaker 1: even come close. But then the next day I had

1113
00:56:21,440 --> 00:56:24,000
Speaker 1: one day in between my hundred meter and my long jump.

1114
00:56:24,040 --> 00:56:26,760
Speaker 1: So the next day I am sitting at my parents

1115
00:56:26,800 --> 00:56:30,120
Speaker 1: at Airbnb, and I'm trying to just refocus and get

1116
00:56:30,120 --> 00:56:32,960
Speaker 1: myself ready for the hundred. But you know, when I

1117
00:56:33,000 --> 00:56:34,879
Speaker 1: go into the hundred meter, my coach is literally gonna

1118
00:56:34,880 --> 00:56:36,960
Speaker 1: probably kill me for saying this, but I know I'm

1119
00:56:36,960 --> 00:56:40,359
Speaker 1: not gonna meddle, Like these girls are so fast and

1120
00:56:40,400 --> 00:56:43,400
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to run the best time for me possible.

1121
00:56:43,440 --> 00:56:46,760
Speaker 1: I'm trying to make it to the finals. So Saturday

1122
00:56:46,840 --> 00:56:50,200
Speaker 1: comes around, I qualify, and I think once I qualify

1123
00:56:50,280 --> 00:56:52,760
Speaker 1: for finals, like it was like okay, I can breathe,

1124
00:56:52,920 --> 00:56:55,960
Speaker 1: like it's it's fine. Literally, I competed in the in

1125
00:56:56,000 --> 00:56:59,359
Speaker 1: the hundred, I got seventh. Uh well, I got eighth,

1126
00:56:59,480 --> 00:57:01,360
Speaker 1: But the only reason where I got seventh is because

1127
00:57:01,440 --> 00:57:05,200
Speaker 1: the person that was gonna win fell and like knocked out.

1128
00:57:05,600 --> 00:57:08,080
Speaker 1: I was like you couldn't knock out everybody. Let me

1129
00:57:08,200 --> 00:57:12,600
Speaker 1: come home with about no and then so I was

1130
00:57:12,680 --> 00:57:16,440
Speaker 1: just like Okay. Literally the next morning, I fly to

1131
00:57:16,480 --> 00:57:18,800
Speaker 1: Italy with my fiance and like, I'm like, I don't

1132
00:57:18,840 --> 00:57:20,440
Speaker 1: want to think about track. I don't want to do anything.

1133
00:57:20,720 --> 00:57:24,360
Speaker 1: And that was something like I mentally needed. It was just,

1134
00:57:24,720 --> 00:57:26,520
Speaker 1: you know, it was a nice reward that I gave

1135
00:57:26,560 --> 00:57:29,560
Speaker 1: myself after a very tough season. I need to be

1136
00:57:29,600 --> 00:57:34,520
Speaker 1: proud of myself, regardless because a year ago I wasn't

1137
00:57:34,600 --> 00:57:37,080
Speaker 1: qualifying for World Championships and I told myself, I just

1138
00:57:37,160 --> 00:57:40,480
Speaker 1: want to qualify for the Paris Paris Paralympic Games. Going

1139
00:57:40,520 --> 00:57:42,760
Speaker 1: into it, I was ranked second in the world for

1140
00:57:42,840 --> 00:57:45,760
Speaker 1: long jump. Never could have ever imagined something like that,

1141
00:57:45,960 --> 00:57:50,800
Speaker 1: getting to qualify and compete and represent my country. It's

1142
00:57:50,880 --> 00:57:52,920
Speaker 1: just it's such an incredible feeling that I need to

1143
00:57:52,920 --> 00:57:55,160
Speaker 1: be proud of and proud of myself just for doing

1144
00:57:55,880 --> 00:57:58,200
Speaker 1: so many things to take away, so many things to learn,

1145
00:57:58,400 --> 00:58:00,240
Speaker 1: but also so many things to be proud of of

1146
00:58:00,560 --> 00:58:05,400
Speaker 1: having a healthy and happy season and yeah, just being

1147
00:58:05,400 --> 00:58:07,720
Speaker 1: able to appreciate it, being able to go out to California.

1148
00:58:07,960 --> 00:58:09,640
Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, I was away from my family, but

1149
00:58:09,720 --> 00:58:12,760
Speaker 1: I was still in beautiful weather. I wasn't dealing with

1150
00:58:12,800 --> 00:58:16,160
Speaker 1: the New England weather of the winter. I was in

1151
00:58:16,200 --> 00:58:20,000
Speaker 1: the warm weather every single day, surrounded by incredible teammates

1152
00:58:20,520 --> 00:58:21,200
Speaker 1: that helped me.

1153
00:58:21,600 --> 00:58:23,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, I hear you. And it's like you have these

1154
00:58:23,640 --> 00:58:26,280
Speaker 2: moments when you're like, what did I just do? What

1155
00:58:27,240 --> 00:58:29,439
Speaker 2: a waste of a season? Right, But then you come

1156
00:58:29,480 --> 00:58:32,120
Speaker 2: around and you think to yourself and you realize, no,

1157
00:58:32,360 --> 00:58:34,800
Speaker 2: like all of these things, they may not have gotten

1158
00:58:34,800 --> 00:58:37,200
Speaker 2: me where I wanted to be right now, but they

1159
00:58:37,200 --> 00:58:40,480
Speaker 2: have so much to offer me in the long haul. Again,

1160
00:58:40,600 --> 00:58:43,840
Speaker 2: that shaping that perspective and finding the power in your

1161
00:58:43,840 --> 00:58:47,960
Speaker 2: own perspective, which can be just so so valuable. Now,

1162
00:58:48,280 --> 00:58:51,400
Speaker 2: someone like you, I come if I was on social media,

1163
00:58:51,440 --> 00:58:53,800
Speaker 2: I go to your Instagram page and I see this

1164
00:58:53,880 --> 00:58:58,440
Speaker 2: Paralympic athlete, someone who, of course, as we talked about,

1165
00:58:58,520 --> 00:59:01,560
Speaker 2: was on Survivor and has really overcome a lot of

1166
00:59:01,640 --> 00:59:04,560
Speaker 2: adversity in the last eight years. But when you look

1167
00:59:04,600 --> 00:59:07,120
Speaker 2: in the mirror, Noel, what is it that you see

1168
00:59:07,400 --> 00:59:08,240
Speaker 2: looking back at you?

1169
00:59:09,680 --> 00:59:13,080
Speaker 1: I think I see a person that you know, just

1170
00:59:13,160 --> 00:59:16,360
Speaker 1: wants to do everything they can for the amputee, for

1171
00:59:16,400 --> 00:59:19,480
Speaker 1: the disabled community. You know, we didn't talk about it,

1172
00:59:19,920 --> 00:59:22,720
Speaker 1: but one of the things I'm most proud of is

1173
00:59:22,760 --> 00:59:27,800
Speaker 1: my nonprofit that I started when I was a senior

1174
00:59:27,840 --> 00:59:30,800
Speaker 1: in college. While I didn't start, my family started, my

1175
00:59:30,840 --> 00:59:35,640
Speaker 1: incredible uncle, incredible mother. And to be able to give back,

1176
00:59:36,120 --> 00:59:39,520
Speaker 1: you know, everything that I've learned after becoming an amputee

1177
00:59:39,560 --> 00:59:42,720
Speaker 1: and putting it into a foundation and getting to donate

1178
00:59:42,760 --> 00:59:46,080
Speaker 1: specialized prosthetics to amputees who just want to live a

1179
00:59:46,120 --> 00:59:49,720
Speaker 1: normal life is something that you know, I can never

1180
00:59:50,920 --> 00:59:53,920
Speaker 1: take for granted, and I can never It never gets old.

1181
00:59:53,960 --> 00:59:58,040
Speaker 1: Every single time we do a new donation and I

1182
00:59:58,080 --> 01:00:00,640
Speaker 1: get to see how it affects them and the things

1183
01:00:00,680 --> 01:00:03,080
Speaker 1: that they're able to accomplish with their new prosthetic leg.

1184
01:00:04,000 --> 01:00:06,400
Speaker 1: It's a full circle moment for me, one because I

1185
01:00:06,480 --> 01:00:08,600
Speaker 1: was sitting in that position just waiting for a prosthetic

1186
01:00:08,640 --> 01:00:13,120
Speaker 1: leg to play lacrosse again. And two it's just such

1187
01:00:13,160 --> 01:00:16,240
Speaker 1: an incredible moment because it inspires me so much to

1188
01:00:16,320 --> 01:00:18,360
Speaker 1: be able to want to give back even more. And

1189
01:00:18,400 --> 01:00:21,240
Speaker 1: when I look in the mirror, that's what I want

1190
01:00:21,240 --> 01:00:23,880
Speaker 1: to be remembered by, obviously, like I would love to

1191
01:00:23,880 --> 01:00:27,720
Speaker 1: be remembered of this incredible athlete who's a world record holder,

1192
01:00:27,760 --> 01:00:32,400
Speaker 1: a gold medalist, you know, a survivor contestant, because you know,

1193
01:00:32,440 --> 01:00:35,760
Speaker 1: that's the only thing that I'm recognized nowadays, is that's

1194
01:00:36,160 --> 01:00:38,400
Speaker 1: that's my claim to fame, which I you know, I

1195
01:00:38,440 --> 01:00:40,880
Speaker 1: love it. I love the show, and I think it's

1196
01:00:40,880 --> 01:00:42,720
Speaker 1: still cool that I still get recognized a couple of

1197
01:00:42,800 --> 01:00:45,720
Speaker 1: years later. But when I think about my story and

1198
01:00:45,760 --> 01:00:48,760
Speaker 1: everything that I've been through, it's amazing to kind of

1199
01:00:48,800 --> 01:00:51,360
Speaker 1: see what we've been able to do with the foundation.

1200
01:00:51,760 --> 01:00:54,320
Speaker 1: And the sole reason why that is even a thing

1201
01:00:54,400 --> 01:00:57,680
Speaker 1: is my mother. I mean, she is the brains of

1202
01:00:57,720 --> 01:00:59,640
Speaker 1: the operation. I am just the face. She does all

1203
01:00:59,640 --> 01:01:02,120
Speaker 1: the hard work when she has a full time job

1204
01:01:02,640 --> 01:01:05,840
Speaker 1: on top of it. So I'm just very grateful to have,

1205
01:01:06,360 --> 01:01:08,480
Speaker 1: you know, people believe in the same message that I

1206
01:01:08,520 --> 01:01:12,040
Speaker 1: want to portray, and I'm just it's you know, I

1207
01:01:12,040 --> 01:01:16,400
Speaker 1: think we've donated thirty four different specialized prosthetics since two thousand,

1208
01:01:16,840 --> 01:01:19,400
Speaker 1: eighteen twenty nineteen, so we just want to keep growing

1209
01:01:19,400 --> 01:01:21,840
Speaker 1: in as much as possible. It gives me an opportunity

1210
01:01:21,880 --> 01:01:25,520
Speaker 1: to meet incredible people and turn this accident around into

1211
01:01:25,520 --> 01:01:28,160
Speaker 1: something that it's something that's good. When I look back

1212
01:01:28,160 --> 01:01:29,920
Speaker 1: on my accident. I do view it as such a

1213
01:01:29,960 --> 01:01:33,280
Speaker 1: positive because I've been able to do so many extraordinary

1214
01:01:33,320 --> 01:01:35,880
Speaker 1: things with my life because of that accident. But you

1215
01:01:35,920 --> 01:01:37,560
Speaker 1: know the best part about it is the foundation.

1216
01:01:38,240 --> 01:01:40,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, and for those that want to look into it more,

1217
01:01:40,400 --> 01:01:43,520
Speaker 2: it's the Born to Run Foundation. I'll link it in

1218
01:01:43,600 --> 01:01:46,920
Speaker 2: the show notes as well as we wind down here.

1219
01:01:46,960 --> 01:01:50,200
Speaker 2: Two more questions. Firstly, what are you excited about right now?

1220
01:01:51,080 --> 01:01:53,560
Speaker 1: What am I excited about right now? I am getting

1221
01:01:53,560 --> 01:01:57,960
Speaker 1: married next September. I got we got engaged in August

1222
01:01:58,280 --> 01:02:03,800
Speaker 1: of two thousand and I knew that I wasn't going

1223
01:02:03,840 --> 01:02:05,920
Speaker 1: to be able to plan a wedding with Paris in

1224
01:02:06,000 --> 01:02:08,800
Speaker 1: the mix, so we set the date of two years,

1225
01:02:08,840 --> 01:02:10,920
Speaker 1: and now that date is creeping up a little bit.

1226
01:02:11,480 --> 01:02:14,760
Speaker 1: But again, I have a wonderful mother that loves to plan,

1227
01:02:15,000 --> 01:02:17,080
Speaker 1: so I'm just letting her take the reins of all

1228
01:02:17,160 --> 01:02:21,080
Speaker 1: that I was able to get a wedding dress. I say,

1229
01:02:21,120 --> 01:02:24,560
Speaker 1: it was funny my grandma came and every single dress

1230
01:02:24,560 --> 01:02:26,640
Speaker 1: I'd tried on, She'd be like, are you saying yes

1231
01:02:26,680 --> 01:02:27,919
Speaker 1: to the dress? Oh?

1232
01:02:28,040 --> 01:02:29,520
Speaker 3: Grandma?

1233
01:02:30,680 --> 01:02:32,760
Speaker 1: So I was able to do that, but I think,

1234
01:02:32,960 --> 01:02:35,280
Speaker 1: you know, being able to start this new chapter, and

1235
01:02:35,280 --> 01:02:36,960
Speaker 1: then you got LA twenty twenty eight, and then you

1236
01:02:37,040 --> 01:02:39,200
Speaker 1: got four more years, which is crazy, but that's going

1237
01:02:39,240 --> 01:02:41,240
Speaker 1: to come out. That's going to come very quickly, I'm sure.

1238
01:02:41,280 --> 01:02:42,800
Speaker 3: So Amen.

1239
01:02:43,920 --> 01:02:46,800
Speaker 2: Right now, Noel, you have an opportunity to give yourself

1240
01:02:46,840 --> 01:02:49,600
Speaker 2: a piece of advice, knowing what you know. Now, let's

1241
01:02:49,640 --> 01:02:53,440
Speaker 2: say back in that moment where you finally allowed yourself

1242
01:02:53,480 --> 01:02:56,840
Speaker 2: to feel with your assistant coach. Knowing what you know, now,

1243
01:02:56,920 --> 01:02:59,240
Speaker 2: thinking back to that Hurtle moment, what would you tell

1244
01:02:59,360 --> 01:03:00,280
Speaker 2: your younger.

1245
01:03:01,520 --> 01:03:04,479
Speaker 1: To just believe in myself every single step of the way.

1246
01:03:05,160 --> 01:03:08,800
Speaker 1: Stop doubting myself. But you know it's crazy. I think

1247
01:03:08,840 --> 01:03:11,640
Speaker 1: this self doubt is what gives me fuel and gives

1248
01:03:11,640 --> 01:03:15,000
Speaker 1: me fire to enjoy life every single moment. Don't think,

1249
01:03:15,120 --> 01:03:18,040
Speaker 1: don't take things for granted, don't just go through the motions.

1250
01:03:18,280 --> 01:03:21,000
Speaker 1: Because I find myself sometimes a practice I'm complaining, like

1251
01:03:21,040 --> 01:03:24,200
Speaker 1: I don't want to be there, or repeddn't go the

1252
01:03:24,240 --> 01:03:26,600
Speaker 1: way I wanted it to. And then I just tell

1253
01:03:26,600 --> 01:03:29,560
Speaker 1: myself because I do think back to those moments, you know,

1254
01:03:29,600 --> 01:03:32,400
Speaker 1: when I wasn't an amputee and I was lazy, and

1255
01:03:32,440 --> 01:03:35,520
Speaker 1: I think, you know, what did I tell myself. What

1256
01:03:35,600 --> 01:03:38,400
Speaker 1: did I vow to myself and to everybody else is

1257
01:03:38,440 --> 01:03:40,880
Speaker 1: I'm not going to just go through the motions. I'm

1258
01:03:40,880 --> 01:03:43,479
Speaker 1: going to do whatever it took, and then that gives

1259
01:03:43,520 --> 01:03:46,560
Speaker 1: me the motivation and that drive. So just go into

1260
01:03:46,560 --> 01:03:49,120
Speaker 1: every single practice, even if you're having a difficulty, and

1261
01:03:49,120 --> 01:03:50,840
Speaker 1: just do the best that you could do in that moment,

1262
01:03:50,880 --> 01:03:52,840
Speaker 1: and then tomorrow show up and just try to be better.

1263
01:03:53,480 --> 01:03:55,880
Speaker 2: Every day is a chance for another rep Noel, I'm

1264
01:03:55,920 --> 01:03:58,160
Speaker 2: so happy that we were able to sit down and

1265
01:03:58,200 --> 01:03:58,880
Speaker 2: make this happen.

1266
01:03:58,920 --> 01:03:59,440
Speaker 3: For those that.

1267
01:03:59,400 --> 01:04:02,480
Speaker 2: Aren't fallowing along with you on social just yet, give

1268
01:04:02,560 --> 01:04:03,920
Speaker 2: us your info how do we keep up?

1269
01:04:04,560 --> 01:04:08,840
Speaker 1: You can follow me at Noel Lambert on Instagram, and

1270
01:04:08,960 --> 01:04:11,400
Speaker 1: you can follow the Born to Run Foundation on Instagram

1271
01:04:11,400 --> 01:04:12,160
Speaker 1: and the website.

1272
01:04:12,280 --> 01:04:12,760
Speaker 3: We love that.

1273
01:04:12,960 --> 01:04:15,520
Speaker 2: I'm over at Emily a Badi and at Hurdle Podcast

1274
01:04:15,720 --> 01:04:17,280
Speaker 2: Another Hurdle Conquered.

1275
01:04:17,680 --> 01:04:18,720
Speaker 3: Catch you guys next time.