WEBVTT 00:00:00.428 --> 00:00:03.425 Life is about opportunities, 00:00:03.425 --> 00:00:06.575 creating them and embracing them, and for me, 00:00:06.575 --> 00:00:08.506 that was the Olympic dream. 00:00:08.506 --> 00:00:11.952 That's what defined me. That was my bliss. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:11.952 --> 00:00:15.701 As a cross-country skier and member of the Australian ski team, 00:00:15.701 --> 00:00:17.346 headed towards the Winter Olympics, 00:00:17.346 --> 00:00:21.575 I was on a training bike ride with my fellow teammates. 00:00:21.575 --> 00:00:23.519 As we made our way up towards 00:00:23.519 --> 00:00:26.669 the spectacular Blue Mountains west of Sydney, 00:00:26.669 --> 00:00:29.133 it was the perfect autumn day: 00:00:29.133 --> 00:00:33.318 sunshine, the smell of eucalypt and a dream. 00:00:33.318 --> 00:00:34.751 Life was good. 00:00:34.751 --> 00:00:37.649 We'd been on our bikes for around five and half hours 00:00:37.649 --> 00:00:40.043 when we got to the part of the ride that I loved, 00:00:40.043 --> 00:00:43.080 and that was the hills, because I loved the hills. 00:00:43.080 --> 00:00:45.778 And I got up off the seat of my bike, and I started 00:00:45.778 --> 00:00:48.731 pumping my legs, and as I sucked in the cold mountain air, 00:00:48.731 --> 00:00:51.386 I could feel it burning my lungs, and I looked up 00:00:51.386 --> 00:00:55.073 to see the sun shining in my face. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:55.073 --> 00:00:58.157 And then everything went black. 00:00:58.157 --> 00:01:01.151 Where was I? What was happening? 00:01:01.151 --> 00:01:04.752 My body was consumed by pain. 00:01:04.752 --> 00:01:07.576 I'd been hit by a speeding utility truck 00:01:07.576 --> 00:01:10.895 with only 10 minutes to go on the bike ride. 00:01:10.895 --> 00:01:12.743 I was airlifted from the scene of the accident 00:01:12.743 --> 00:01:16.351 by a rescue helicopter to a large spinal unit in Sydney. 00:01:16.351 --> 00:01:19.403 I had extensive and life-threatening injuries. 00:01:19.403 --> 00:01:23.539 I'd broken my neck and my back in six places. 00:01:23.539 --> 00:01:26.116 I broke five ribs on my left side. 00:01:26.116 --> 00:01:28.923 I broke my right arm. I broke my collarbone. 00:01:28.923 --> 00:01:31.169 I broke some bones in my feet. 00:01:31.169 --> 00:01:34.429 My whole right side was ripped open, filled with gravel. 00:01:34.429 --> 00:01:36.723 My head was cut open across the front, lifted back, 00:01:36.723 --> 00:01:38.184 exposing the skull underneath. 00:01:38.184 --> 00:01:40.547 I had head injures. I had internal injuries. 00:01:40.547 --> 00:01:43.228 I had massive blood loss. In fact, I lost about five liters 00:01:43.228 --> 00:01:46.423 of blood, which is all someone my size would actually hold. 00:01:46.423 --> 00:01:49.214 By the time the helicopter arrived at Prince Henry Hospital 00:01:49.214 --> 00:01:53.585 in Sydney, my blood pressure was 40 over nothing. 00:01:53.585 --> 00:01:58.988 I was having a really bad day. (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:02:02.635 --> 00:02:07.732 For over 10 days, I drifted between two dimensions. 00:02:07.732 --> 00:02:10.961 I had an awareness of being in my body, but also 00:02:10.961 --> 00:02:13.290 being out of my body, somewhere else, watching 00:02:13.290 --> 00:02:15.188 from above as if it was happening to someone else. 00:02:15.188 --> 00:02:18.941 Why would I want to go back to a body that was so broken? NOTE Paragraph 00:02:18.941 --> 00:02:24.663 But this voice kept calling me: "Come on, stay with me." NOTE Paragraph 00:02:24.663 --> 00:02:27.168 "No. It's too hard." NOTE Paragraph 00:02:27.168 --> 00:02:30.121 "Come on. This is our opportunity." NOTE Paragraph 00:02:30.121 --> 00:02:34.090 "No. That body is broken. It can no longer serve me." NOTE Paragraph 00:02:34.090 --> 00:02:39.594 "Come on. Stay with me. We can do it. We can do it together." NOTE Paragraph 00:02:39.594 --> 00:02:41.877 I was at a crossroads. 00:02:41.877 --> 00:02:45.745 I knew if I didn't return to my body, I'd have to leave this world forever. 00:02:45.745 --> 00:02:49.903 It was the fight of my life. 00:02:49.903 --> 00:02:54.653 After 10 days, I made the decision to return to my body, 00:02:54.653 --> 00:02:59.045 and the internal bleeding stopped. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:59.045 --> 00:03:02.161 The next concern was whether I would walk again, 00:03:02.161 --> 00:03:04.691 because I was paralyzed from the waist down. 00:03:04.691 --> 00:03:07.413 They said to my parents, the neck break was a stable fracture, 00:03:07.413 --> 00:03:09.103 but the back was completely crushed. 00:03:09.103 --> 00:03:13.050 The vertebra at L1 was like you'd dropped a peanut, 00:03:13.050 --> 00:03:16.268 stepped on it, smashed it into thousands of pieces. 00:03:16.268 --> 00:03:18.699 They'd have to operate. 00:03:18.699 --> 00:03:21.599 They went in. They put me on a beanbag. They cut me, 00:03:21.599 --> 00:03:23.893 literally cut me in half, I have a scar 00:03:23.893 --> 00:03:26.809 that wraps around my entire body. 00:03:26.809 --> 00:03:29.419 They picked as much broken bone as they could 00:03:29.419 --> 00:03:31.181 that had lodged in my spinal cord. 00:03:31.181 --> 00:03:35.292 They took out two of my broken ribs, and they rebuilt my back, 00:03:35.292 --> 00:03:38.126 L1, they rebuilt it, they took out another broken rib, 00:03:38.126 --> 00:03:41.346 they fused T12, L1 and L2 together. 00:03:41.346 --> 00:03:44.378 Then they stitched me up. They took an entire hour to stitch me up. 00:03:44.378 --> 00:03:47.385 I woke up in intensive care, and the doctors were really excited 00:03:47.385 --> 00:03:50.409 that the operation had been a success because at that stage 00:03:50.409 --> 00:03:53.494 I had a little bit of movement in one of my big toes, 00:03:53.494 --> 00:03:56.835 and I thought, "Great, because I'm going to the Olympics!" 00:03:56.835 --> 00:03:58.721 (Laughter) 00:03:58.721 --> 00:04:00.994 I had no idea. That's the sort of thing 00:04:00.994 --> 00:04:04.081 that happens to someone else, not me, surely. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:04.081 --> 00:04:06.191 But then the doctor came over to me, and she said, 00:04:06.191 --> 00:04:09.617 "Janine, the operation was a success, and we've picked 00:04:09.617 --> 00:04:12.969 as much bone out of your spinal cord as we could, 00:04:12.969 --> 00:04:14.073 but the damage is permanent. 00:04:14.073 --> 00:04:17.390 The central nervous system nerves, there is no cure. 00:04:17.390 --> 00:04:20.440 You're what we call a partial paraplegic, and you'll have 00:04:20.440 --> 00:04:23.432 all of the injuries that go along with that. 00:04:23.432 --> 00:04:26.640 You have no feeling from the waist down, and at most, 00:04:26.640 --> 00:04:29.661 you might get 10- or 20-percent return. 00:04:29.661 --> 00:04:32.782 You'll have internal injuries for the rest of your life. 00:04:32.782 --> 00:04:35.200 You'll have to use a catheter for the rest of your life. 00:04:35.200 --> 00:04:40.702 And if you walk again, it will be with calipers and a walking frame." 00:04:40.702 --> 00:04:42.313 And then she said, "Janine, 00:04:42.313 --> 00:04:44.416 you'll have to rethink everything you do in your life, 00:04:44.416 --> 00:04:49.176 because you're never going to be able to do the things you did before." NOTE Paragraph 00:04:49.176 --> 00:04:51.889 I tried to grasp what she was saying. 00:04:51.889 --> 00:04:54.351 I was an athlete. That's all I knew. That's all I'd done. 00:04:54.351 --> 00:04:57.599 If I couldn't do that, then what could I do? 00:04:57.599 --> 00:05:01.469 And the question I asked myself is, if I couldn't do that, 00:05:01.469 --> 00:05:03.320 then who was I? NOTE Paragraph 00:05:07.735 --> 00:05:11.055 They moved me from intensive care to acute spinal. 00:05:11.055 --> 00:05:13.474 I was lying on a thin, hard spinal bed. 00:05:13.474 --> 00:05:16.017 I had no movement in my legs. I had tight stockings on 00:05:16.017 --> 00:05:17.931 to protect from blood clots. 00:05:17.931 --> 00:05:21.056 I had one arm in plaster, one arm tied down by drips. 00:05:21.056 --> 00:05:23.813 I had a neck brace and sandbags on either side of my head 00:05:23.813 --> 00:05:25.742 and I saw my world through a mirror 00:05:25.742 --> 00:05:29.100 that was suspended above my head. 00:05:29.100 --> 00:05:32.577 I shared the ward with five other people, 00:05:32.577 --> 00:05:34.832 and the amazing thing is that because we were all lying 00:05:34.832 --> 00:05:39.903 paralyzed in a spinal ward, we didn't know what each other looked like. 00:05:39.903 --> 00:05:43.040 How amazing is that? How often in life 00:05:43.040 --> 00:05:47.754 do you get to make friendships, judgment-free, 00:05:47.754 --> 00:05:50.488 purely based on spirit? 00:05:50.488 --> 00:05:52.999 And there were no superficial conversations 00:05:52.999 --> 00:05:56.327 as we shared our innermost thoughts, our fears, 00:05:56.327 --> 00:06:00.985 and our hopes for life after the spinal ward. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:00.985 --> 00:06:03.702 I remember one night, one of the nurses came in, 00:06:03.702 --> 00:06:07.892 Jonathan, with a whole lot of plastic straws. 00:06:07.892 --> 00:06:10.561 He put a pile on top of each of us, and he said, 00:06:10.561 --> 00:06:13.313 "Start threading them together." 00:06:13.313 --> 00:06:16.614 Well, there wasn't much else to do in the spinal ward, so we did. 00:06:16.614 --> 00:06:20.255 And when we'd finished, he went around silently 00:06:20.255 --> 00:06:22.740 and he joined all of the straws up 00:06:22.740 --> 00:06:26.313 till it looped around the whole ward, and then he said, 00:06:26.313 --> 00:06:30.245 "Okay, everybody, hold on to your straws." 00:06:30.245 --> 00:06:37.220 And we did. And he said, "Right. Now we're all connected." 00:06:37.220 --> 00:06:42.680 And as we held on, and we breathed as one, 00:06:42.680 --> 00:06:47.033 we knew we weren't on this journey alone. 00:06:47.033 --> 00:06:51.537 And even lying paralyzed in the spinal ward, 00:06:51.537 --> 00:06:54.759 there were moments of incredible depth and richness, 00:06:54.759 --> 00:06:58.011 of authenticity and connection 00:06:58.011 --> 00:07:02.355 that I had never experienced before. 00:07:02.355 --> 00:07:06.836 And each of us knew that when we left the spinal ward 00:07:06.836 --> 00:07:11.655 we would never be the same. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:11.655 --> 00:07:15.817 After six months, it was time to go home. 00:07:15.817 --> 00:07:19.283 I remember Dad pushing me outside in my wheelchair, 00:07:19.283 --> 00:07:22.144 wrapped in a plaster body cast, 00:07:22.144 --> 00:07:25.115 and feeling the sun on my face for the first time. 00:07:25.115 --> 00:07:27.053 I soaked it up and I thought, 00:07:27.053 --> 00:07:30.927 how could I ever have taken this for granted? 00:07:30.927 --> 00:07:35.204 I felt so incredibly grateful for my life. 00:07:35.204 --> 00:07:37.199 But before I left the hospital, the head nurse 00:07:37.199 --> 00:07:39.418 had said to me, "Janine, I want you to be ready, 00:07:39.418 --> 00:07:42.153 because when you get home, something's going to happen." 00:07:42.153 --> 00:07:44.045 And I said, "What?" And she said, 00:07:44.045 --> 00:07:46.151 "You're going to get depressed." 00:07:46.151 --> 00:07:48.866 And I said, "Not me, not Janine the Machine," 00:07:48.866 --> 00:07:51.046 which was my nickname. 00:07:51.046 --> 00:07:53.912 She said, "You are, because, see, it happens to everyone. 00:07:53.912 --> 00:07:56.659 In the spinal ward, that's normal. 00:07:56.659 --> 00:07:57.972 You're in a wheelchair. That's normal. 00:07:57.972 --> 00:08:00.142 But you're going to get home and realize 00:08:00.142 --> 00:08:02.238 how different life is." NOTE Paragraph 00:08:02.238 --> 00:08:06.071 And I got home and something happened. 00:08:08.641 --> 00:08:11.660 I realized Sister Sam was right. 00:08:11.660 --> 00:08:14.554 I did get depressed. 00:08:14.554 --> 00:08:17.925 I was in my wheelchair. I had no feeling from the waist down, 00:08:17.925 --> 00:08:21.494 attached to a catheter bottle. I couldn't walk. 00:08:21.494 --> 00:08:23.627 I'd lost so much weight in the hospital 00:08:23.627 --> 00:08:27.389 I now weighed about 80 pounds. 00:08:27.389 --> 00:08:29.910 And I wanted to give up. 00:08:29.910 --> 00:08:33.340 All I wanted to do was put my running shoes on and run out the door. 00:08:33.340 --> 00:08:36.727 I wanted my old life back. I wanted my body back. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:36.727 --> 00:08:39.247 And I can remember Mom sitting on the end of my bed, 00:08:39.247 --> 00:08:43.140 and saying, "I wonder if life will ever be good again." NOTE Paragraph 00:08:43.140 --> 00:08:47.436 And I thought, "How could it? Because I've lost everything 00:08:47.436 --> 00:08:51.636 that I valued, everything that I'd worked towards. 00:08:51.636 --> 00:08:54.513 Gone." 00:08:54.513 --> 00:08:59.537 And the question I asked was, "Why me? Why me?" NOTE Paragraph 00:08:59.537 --> 00:09:03.436 And then I remembered my friends 00:09:03.436 --> 00:09:05.839 that were still in the spinal ward, 00:09:05.839 --> 00:09:07.483 particularly Maria. 00:09:07.483 --> 00:09:09.593 Maria was in a car accident, and she woke up 00:09:09.593 --> 00:09:14.440 on her 16th birthday to the news that she was a complete quadriplegic, 00:09:14.440 --> 00:09:16.733 had no movement from the neck down, 00:09:16.733 --> 00:09:20.422 had damage to her vocal chords, and she couldn't talk. 00:09:20.422 --> 00:09:22.696 They told me, "We're going to move you next to her 00:09:22.696 --> 00:09:24.991 because we think it will be good for her." 00:09:24.991 --> 00:09:28.321 I was worried. I didn't know how I'd react 00:09:28.321 --> 00:09:30.270 to being next to her. 00:09:30.270 --> 00:09:34.194 I knew it would be challenging, but it was actually a blessing, 00:09:34.194 --> 00:09:39.436 because Maria always smiled. 00:09:39.436 --> 00:09:43.858 She was always happy, and even when she began to talk again, 00:09:43.858 --> 00:09:49.935 albeit difficult to understand, she never complained, not once. 00:09:49.935 --> 00:09:55.758 And I wondered how had she ever found that level of acceptance. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:55.758 --> 00:10:00.477 And I realized that this wasn't just my life. 00:10:00.477 --> 00:10:04.782 It was life itself. I realized that this wasn't just my pain. 00:10:04.782 --> 00:10:09.925 It was everybody's pain. And then I knew, just like before, 00:10:09.925 --> 00:10:14.257 that I had a choice. I could keep fighting this 00:10:14.257 --> 00:10:19.278 or I could let go and accept not only my body 00:10:19.278 --> 00:10:22.661 but the circumstances of my life. 00:10:22.661 --> 00:10:26.476 And then I stopped asking, "Why me?" 00:10:26.476 --> 00:10:29.429 And I started to ask, "Why not me?" 00:10:29.429 --> 00:10:33.556 And then I thought to myself, maybe being at rock bottom 00:10:33.556 --> 00:10:40.447 is actually the perfect place to start. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:40.447 --> 00:10:44.439 I had never before thought of myself as a creative person. 00:10:44.439 --> 00:10:48.103 I was an athlete. My body was a machine. 00:10:48.103 --> 00:10:52.794 But now I was about to embark on the most creative project 00:10:52.794 --> 00:10:54.729 that any of us could ever do: 00:10:54.729 --> 00:10:57.449 that of rebuilding a life. 00:10:57.449 --> 00:11:00.008 And even though I had absolutely no idea 00:11:00.008 --> 00:11:02.863 what I was going to do, in that uncertainty 00:11:02.863 --> 00:11:05.307 came a sense of freedom. 00:11:05.307 --> 00:11:08.061 I was no longer tied to a set path. 00:11:08.061 --> 00:11:14.183 I was free to explore life's infinite possibilities. 00:11:14.183 --> 00:11:20.403 And that realization was about to change my life. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:20.403 --> 00:11:25.207 Sitting at home in my wheelchair and my plaster body cast, 00:11:25.207 --> 00:11:29.096 an airplane flew overhead, and I looked up, 00:11:29.096 --> 00:11:32.003 and I thought to myself, "That's it! 00:11:32.003 --> 00:11:36.366 If I can't walk, then I might as well fly." 00:11:36.366 --> 00:11:39.002 I said, "Mom, I'm going to learn how to fly." 00:11:39.002 --> 00:11:43.142 She said, "That's nice, dear." (Laughter) 00:11:43.142 --> 00:11:45.073 I said, "Pass me the yellow pages." 00:11:45.073 --> 00:11:47.415 She passed me the phone book, I rang up the flying school, 00:11:47.415 --> 00:11:50.377 I made a booking, said I'd like to make a booking to come out for a flight. 00:11:50.377 --> 00:11:53.008 They said, "You know, when do you want to come out?" 00:11:53.008 --> 00:11:54.861 I said, "Well, I have to get a friend to drive me out 00:11:54.861 --> 00:11:58.170 because I can't drive. Sort of can't walk either. 00:11:58.170 --> 00:11:59.160 Is that a problem?" 00:11:59.160 --> 00:12:01.257 I made a booking, and weeks later my friend Chris 00:12:01.257 --> 00:12:03.034 and my mom drove me out to the airport, 00:12:03.034 --> 00:12:05.727 all 80 pounds of me covered in a plaster body cast 00:12:05.727 --> 00:12:08.763 in a baggy pair of overalls. (Laughter) 00:12:08.763 --> 00:12:11.561 I can tell you, I did not look like the ideal candidate 00:12:11.561 --> 00:12:14.351 to get a pilot's license. (Laughter) 00:12:14.351 --> 00:12:16.717 I'm holding on to the counter because I can't stand. 00:12:16.717 --> 00:12:18.531 I said, "Hi, I'm here for a flying lesson." 00:12:18.531 --> 00:12:21.797 And they took one look and ran out the back to draw short straws. 00:12:21.797 --> 00:12:25.715 "You get her." "No, no, you take her." 00:12:25.715 --> 00:12:27.045 Finally this guy comes out. He goes, 00:12:27.045 --> 00:12:28.828 "Hi, I'm Andrew, and I'm going to take you flying." 00:12:28.828 --> 00:12:30.456 I go, "Great." And so they drive me down, 00:12:30.456 --> 00:12:31.784 they get me out on the tarmac, 00:12:31.784 --> 00:12:33.542 and there was this red, white and blue airplane. 00:12:33.542 --> 00:12:36.876 It was beautiful. They lifted me into the cockpit. 00:12:36.876 --> 00:12:39.474 They had to slide me up on the wing, put me in the cockpit. 00:12:39.474 --> 00:12:41.747 They sat me down. There are buttons and dials everywhere. 00:12:41.747 --> 00:12:45.280 I'm going, "Wow, how do you ever know what all these buttons and dials do?" 00:12:45.280 --> 00:12:47.823 Andrew the instructor got in the front, started the airplane up. 00:12:47.823 --> 00:12:49.885 He said, "Would you like to have a go at taxiing?" 00:12:49.885 --> 00:12:52.086 That's when you use your feet to control the rudder pedals 00:12:52.086 --> 00:12:54.111 to control the airplane on the ground. 00:12:54.111 --> 00:12:56.458 I said, "No, I can't use my legs." 00:12:56.458 --> 00:12:57.670 He went, "Oh." 00:12:57.670 --> 00:13:00.477 I said, "But I can use my hands," and he said, "Okay." NOTE Paragraph 00:13:00.477 --> 00:13:03.506 So he got over to the runway, and he applied the power. 00:13:03.506 --> 00:13:06.315 And as we took off down the runway, 00:13:06.315 --> 00:13:10.325 and the wheels lifted up off the tarmac, and we became airborne, 00:13:10.325 --> 00:13:15.356 I had the most incredible sense of freedom. 00:13:15.356 --> 00:13:17.822 And Andrew said to me, 00:13:17.822 --> 00:13:20.403 as we got over the training area, 00:13:20.403 --> 00:13:22.879 "You see that mountain over there?" 00:13:22.879 --> 00:13:24.412 And I said, "Yeah." 00:13:24.412 --> 00:13:29.168 And he said, "Well, you take the controls, and you fly towards that mountain." 00:13:29.168 --> 00:13:31.650 And as I looked up, I realized 00:13:31.650 --> 00:13:34.873 that he was pointing towards the Blue Mountains 00:13:34.873 --> 00:13:37.853 where the journey had begun. 00:13:37.853 --> 00:13:42.438 And I took the controls, and I was flying. 00:13:42.438 --> 00:13:45.491 And I was a long, long way from that spinal ward, 00:13:45.491 --> 00:13:49.633 and I knew right then that I was going to be a pilot. 00:13:49.633 --> 00:13:53.503 Didn't know how on Earth I'd ever pass a medical. 00:13:53.503 --> 00:13:56.562 But I'd worry about that later, because right now I had a dream. 00:13:56.562 --> 00:14:00.786 So I went home, I got a training diary out, and I had a plan. 00:14:00.786 --> 00:14:03.616 And I practiced my walking as much as I could, 00:14:03.616 --> 00:14:06.750 and I went from the point of two people holding me up 00:14:06.750 --> 00:14:09.625 to one person holding me up 00:14:09.625 --> 00:14:11.527 to the point where I could walk around the furniture 00:14:11.527 --> 00:14:14.260 as long as it wasn't too far apart. 00:14:14.260 --> 00:14:16.452 And then I made great progression to the point 00:14:16.452 --> 00:14:18.684 where I could walk around the house, holding onto the walls, 00:14:18.684 --> 00:14:22.274 like this, and Mom said she was forever following me, 00:14:22.274 --> 00:14:25.927 wiping off my fingerprints. (Laughter) 00:14:25.927 --> 00:14:30.606 But at least she always knew where I was. NOTE Paragraph 00:14:30.606 --> 00:14:32.992 So while the doctors continued to operate 00:14:32.992 --> 00:14:35.029 and put my body back together again, 00:14:35.029 --> 00:14:38.684 I went on with my theory study, and then eventually, 00:14:38.684 --> 00:14:42.119 and amazingly, I passed my pilot's medical, 00:14:42.119 --> 00:14:44.651 and that was my green light to fly. 00:14:44.651 --> 00:14:47.315 And I spent every moment I could out at that flying school, 00:14:47.315 --> 00:14:48.853 way out of my comfort zone, 00:14:48.853 --> 00:14:51.255 all these young guys that wanted to be Qantas pilots, 00:14:51.255 --> 00:14:54.742 you know, and little old hop-along me in first my plaster cast, 00:14:54.742 --> 00:14:57.443 and then my steel brace, my baggy overalls, 00:14:57.443 --> 00:15:01.009 my bag of medication and catheters and my limp, 00:15:01.009 --> 00:15:02.270 and they used to look at me and think, 00:15:02.270 --> 00:15:05.641 "Oh, who is she kidding? She's never going to be able to do this." 00:15:05.641 --> 00:15:07.544 And sometimes I thought that too. 00:15:07.544 --> 00:15:12.044 But that didn't matter, because now there was something inside that burned 00:15:12.044 --> 00:15:16.431 that far outweighed my injuries. NOTE Paragraph 00:15:16.431 --> 00:15:18.396 And little goals kept me going along the way, 00:15:18.396 --> 00:15:22.122 and eventually I got my private pilot's license, 00:15:22.122 --> 00:15:27.352 and then I learned to navigate, and I flew my friends around Australia. 00:15:27.352 --> 00:15:30.180 And then I learned to fly an airplane with two engines 00:15:30.180 --> 00:15:32.746 and I got my twin engine rating. 00:15:32.746 --> 00:15:35.691 And then I learned to fly in bad weather as well as fine weather 00:15:35.691 --> 00:15:38.156 and got my instrument rating. 00:15:38.156 --> 00:15:41.260 And then I got my commercial pilot's license. 00:15:41.260 --> 00:15:43.983 And then I got my instructor rating. 00:15:43.983 --> 00:15:47.182 And then I found myself back at that same school 00:15:47.182 --> 00:15:49.430 where I'd gone for that very first flight, 00:15:49.430 --> 00:15:52.576 teaching other people how to fly, 00:15:52.576 --> 00:15:56.718 just under 18 months after I'd left the spinal ward. 00:15:56.718 --> 00:16:08.272 (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:16:08.272 --> 00:16:10.423 And then I thought, "Why stop there? 00:16:10.423 --> 00:16:13.694 Why not learn to fly upside down?" 00:16:13.694 --> 00:16:16.348 And I did, and I learned to fly upside down 00:16:16.348 --> 00:16:20.406 and became an aerobatics flying instructor. 00:16:20.406 --> 00:16:26.589 And Mom and Dad? Never been up. 00:16:26.589 --> 00:16:32.304 But then I knew for certain that although my body might be limited, 00:16:32.304 --> 00:16:37.466 it was my spirit that was unstoppable. NOTE Paragraph 00:16:37.466 --> 00:16:40.847 The philosopher Lao Tzu once said, 00:16:40.847 --> 00:16:43.766 "When you let go of what you are, 00:16:43.766 --> 00:16:47.197 you become what you might be." 00:16:47.197 --> 00:16:52.102 I now know that it wasn't until I let go of who I thought I was 00:16:52.102 --> 00:16:56.303 that I was able to create a completely new life. 00:16:56.303 --> 00:17:00.940 It wasn't until I let go of the life I thought I should have 00:17:00.940 --> 00:17:05.724 that I was able to embrace the life that was waiting for me. 00:17:05.724 --> 00:17:08.945 I now know that my real strength 00:17:08.945 --> 00:17:12.162 never came from my body, 00:17:12.162 --> 00:17:17.169 and although my physical capabilities have changed dramatically, 00:17:17.169 --> 00:17:20.952 who I am is unchanged. 00:17:20.952 --> 00:17:25.291 The pilot light inside of me was still a light, 00:17:25.291 --> 00:17:29.988 just as it is in each and every one of us. NOTE Paragraph 00:17:29.988 --> 00:17:33.211 I know that I'm not my body, 00:17:33.211 --> 00:17:36.659 and I also know that you're not yours. 00:17:36.659 --> 00:17:40.935 And then it no longer matters what you look like, 00:17:40.935 --> 00:17:45.253 where you come from, or what you do for a living. 00:17:45.253 --> 00:17:50.700 All that matters is that we continue to fan the flame of humanity 00:17:50.700 --> 00:17:54.752 by living our lives as the ultimate creative expression 00:17:54.752 --> 00:17:58.518 of who we really are, 00:17:58.518 --> 00:18:01.324 because we are all connected 00:18:01.324 --> 00:18:05.471 by millions and millions of straws, 00:18:05.471 --> 00:18:08.392 and it's time to join those up 00:18:08.392 --> 00:18:10.199 and to hang on. 00:18:10.199 --> 00:18:14.563 And if we are to move towards our collective bliss, 00:18:14.563 --> 00:18:17.286 it's time we shed our focus on the physical 00:18:17.286 --> 00:18:21.121 and instead embrace the virtues of the heart. NOTE Paragraph 00:18:21.121 --> 00:18:25.200 So raise your straws if you'll join me. NOTE Paragraph 00:18:25.200 --> 00:18:31.479 Thank you. (Applause) 00:18:31.479 --> 00:18:36.449 Thank you.