WEBVTT

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If your life were a book

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and you were the author,

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how would you want your story to go?

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That's the question
that changed my life forever.

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Growing up in the hot Last Vegas desert,

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all I wanted was to be free.

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I would daydream about
traveling the world,

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living in a place where it snowed,

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and I would picture all of the stories

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that I would go on to tell.

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At the age of 19,

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the day after I graduated high school,

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I moved to a place where it snowed

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and I became a massage therapist.

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With this job all I needed were my hands

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and my massage table by my side

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and I could go anywhere.

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For the first time in my life,

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I felt free, independent

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and completely in control of my life.

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That is, until my life took a detour.

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I went home from work early one day

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with what I thought was the flu,

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and less than 24 hours later

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I was in the hospital

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on life support

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with less than a two percent chance of living.

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It wasn't until days later

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as I lay in a coma

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that the doctors diagnosed me

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with bacterial meningitis,

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a vaccine-preventable blood infection.

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Over the course of two and a half months

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I lost my spleen, my kidneys,

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the hearing in my left ear

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and both of my legs below the knee.

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When my parents
wheeled me out of the hospital

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I felt like I had been
pieced back together

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like a patchwork doll.

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I thought the worst was over

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until weeks later when I saw my new legs

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for the first time.

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The calves were bulky blocks of metal

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with pipes bolted together for the ankles

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and a yellow rubber foot

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with a raised rubber line
from the toe to the ankle

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to look like a vein.

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I didn't know what to expect,

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but I wasn't expecting that.

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With my mom by my side

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and tears streaming down our faces,

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I strapped on these chunky legs

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and I stood up.

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They were so painful and so confining

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that all I could think was,

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how am I ever going to travel the world

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in these things?

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How was I ever going to live

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the life full of adventure and stories,

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as I always wanted?

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And how was I going to snowboard again?

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That day, I went home, I crawled into bed

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and this is what my life looked like

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for the next few months:

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me passed out, escaping from reality,

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with my legs resting by my side.

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I was absolutely physically
and emotionally broken.

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But I knew that in order to move forward,

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I had to let go of the old Amy

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and learn to embrace the new Amy.

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And that is when it dawned on me

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that I didn't have to be five-foot-five anymore.

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I could be as tall as I wanted!

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(Laughter) (Applause)

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Or as short as I wanted,
depending on who I was dating.

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(Laughter)

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And if I snowboarded again,

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my feet aren't going to get cold.

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(Laughter)

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And best of all, I thought,

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I can make my feet the size
of all the shoes

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that are on the sales rack.
(Laughter)

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And I did!

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So there were benefits here.

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It was this moment that I asked myself

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that life-defining question:

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If my life were a book

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and I were the author,

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how would I want the story to go?

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And I began to daydream.

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I daydreamed like I did as a little girl

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and I imagined myself

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walking gracefully,

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helping other people through my journey

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and snowboarding again.

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And I didn't just see myself

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carving down a mountain of powder,

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I could actually feel it.

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I could feel the wind against my face

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and the beat of my racing heart

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as if it were happening
in that very moment.

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And that is when a new chapter
in my life began.

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Four months later
I was back up on a snowboard,

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although things didn't go
quite as expected:

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My knees and my ankles wouldn't bend

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and at one point I traumatized
all the skiers on the chair lift

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when I fell and my legs,

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still attached to my snowboard —

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(Laughter) —

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went flying down the mountain,

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and I was on top of the mountain still.

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I was so shocked,

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I was just as shocked as everybody else,
and I was so discouraged,

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but I knew that if I could find the right pair of feet

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that I would be able to do this again.

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And this is when I learned
that our borders

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and our obstacles
can only do two things:

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one, stop us in our tracks

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or two, force us to get creative.

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I did a year of research,
still couldn't figure out

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what kind of legs to use,

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couldn't find any resources
that could help me.

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So I decided to make a pair myself.

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My leg maker and I
put random parts together

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and we made a pair of feet
that I could snowboard in.

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As you can see,

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rusted bolts, rubber,
wood and neon pink duct tape.

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And yes, I can change my toenail polish.

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It was these legs

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and the best 21st birthday gift
I could ever receive —

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a new kidney from my dad —

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that allowed me to follow my dreams again.

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I started snowboarding,

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then I went back to work,
then I went back to school.

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Then in 2005 I cofounded
a nonprofit organization

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for youth and young adults
with physical disabilities

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so they could get involved
with action sports.

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From there, I had the opportunity to go to South Africa,

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where I helped to put shoes
on thousands of children's feet

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so they could attend school.

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And just this past February,

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I won two back-to-back
World Cup gold medals —

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(Applause) —

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which made me

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the highest ranked
adaptive female snowboarder

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in the world.

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Eleven years ago, when I lost my legs,

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I had no idea what to expect.

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But if you ask me today,

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if I would ever want to
change my situation,

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I would have to say no.

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Because my legs haven't disabled me,

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if anything they've enabled me.

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They've forced me to rely on my imagination

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and to believe in the possibilities,

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and that's why I believe

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that our imaginations can be used as tools

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for breaking through borders,

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because in our minds,
we can do anything

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and we can be anything.

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It's believing in those dreams

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and facing our fears head-on

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that allows us to live our lives

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beyond our limits.

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And although today is about
innovation without borders,

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I have to say that in my life,

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innovation has only been possible

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because of my borders.

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I've learned that borders are where the actual ends,

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but also where the imagination

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and the story begins.

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So the thought that I would like 
to challenge you with today

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is that maybe instead of looking at 
our challenges and our limitations

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as something negative or bad,

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we can begin to look at them as blessings,

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magnificent gifts that can be used
to ignite our imaginations

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and help us go further
than we ever knew we could go.

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It's not about breaking down borders.

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It's about pushing off of them

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and seeing what amazing places

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they might bring us.

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Thank you.