1
00:00:00,492 --> 00:00:05,698
Life is about opportunities --
creating them and embracing them.

2
00:00:05,722 --> 00:00:08,809
And for me, that was the Olympic dream.

3
00:00:08,833 --> 00:00:11,638
That's what defined me. That was my bliss.

4
00:00:12,511 --> 00:00:15,677
As a cross-country skier
and member of the Australian ski team

5
00:00:15,701 --> 00:00:17,808
headed towards the Winter Olympics,

6
00:00:17,832 --> 00:00:21,212
I was on a training bike ride
with my fellow teammates.

7
00:00:21,936 --> 00:00:25,540
As we made our way up
towards the spectacular Blue Mountains

8
00:00:25,564 --> 00:00:26,715
west of Sydney,

9
00:00:26,739 --> 00:00:29,179
it was the perfect autumn day:

10
00:00:29,203 --> 00:00:33,365
sunshine, the smell
of eucalypt and a dream.

11
00:00:33,389 --> 00:00:34,634
Life was good.

12
00:00:35,257 --> 00:00:37,861
We'd been on our bikes
for around five-and-a-half hours

13
00:00:37,885 --> 00:00:40,311
when we got to the part
of the ride that I loved,

14
00:00:40,335 --> 00:00:43,056
and that was the hills,
because I loved the hills.

15
00:00:43,080 --> 00:00:46,981
I got up off the seat of my bike
and I started pumping my legs,

16
00:00:47,005 --> 00:00:50,823
and as I sucked in the cold mountain air,
I could feel it burning my lungs,

17
00:00:50,847 --> 00:00:53,953
and I looked up to see
the sun shining in my face.

18
00:00:55,430 --> 00:00:56,998
And then everything went black.

19
00:00:58,362 --> 00:01:00,691
Where was I? What was happening?

20
00:01:01,151 --> 00:01:03,541
My body was consumed by pain.

21
00:01:04,953 --> 00:01:07,668
I'd been hit by a speeding utility truck

22
00:01:07,692 --> 00:01:10,227
with only 10 minutes
to go on the bike ride.

23
00:01:10,895 --> 00:01:14,166
I was airlifted from the scene
of the accident by a rescue helicopter

24
00:01:14,190 --> 00:01:16,461
to a large spinal unit in Sydney.

25
00:01:16,485 --> 00:01:19,231
I had extensive
and life-threatening injuries.

26
00:01:20,108 --> 00:01:23,234
I'd broken my neck
and my back in six places.

27
00:01:23,909 --> 00:01:26,201
I broke five ribs on my left side.

28
00:01:26,225 --> 00:01:29,009
I broke my right arm.
I broke my collarbone.

29
00:01:29,033 --> 00:01:30,878
I broke some bones in my feet.

30
00:01:31,410 --> 00:01:34,405
My whole right side was ripped open,
filled with gravel.

31
00:01:34,429 --> 00:01:36,810
My head was cut open
across the front, lifted back,

32
00:01:36,834 --> 00:01:38,507
exposing the skull underneath.

33
00:01:38,531 --> 00:01:40,633
I had head injures.
I had internal injuries.

34
00:01:40,657 --> 00:01:41,987
I had massive blood loss.

35
00:01:42,011 --> 00:01:44,090
In fact, I lost
about five liters of blood,

36
00:01:44,114 --> 00:01:46,669
which is all someone my size
would actually hold.

37
00:01:46,693 --> 00:01:50,263
By the time the helicopter arrived
at Prince Henry Hospital in Sydney,

38
00:01:50,287 --> 00:01:52,867
my blood pressure was 40 over nothing.

39
00:01:54,209 --> 00:01:55,987
I was having a really bad day.

40
00:01:56,011 --> 00:02:02,342
(Laughter)

41
00:02:03,259 --> 00:02:07,176
For over 10 days, I drifted
between two dimensions.

42
00:02:07,910 --> 00:02:10,399
I had an awareness of being in my body,

43
00:02:10,423 --> 00:02:12,675
but also being out of my body,
somewhere else,

44
00:02:12,699 --> 00:02:15,722
watching from above,
as if it was happening to someone else.

45
00:02:15,746 --> 00:02:19,104
Why would I want to go back
to a body that was so broken?

46
00:02:19,593 --> 00:02:21,912
But this voice kept calling me:

47
00:02:22,388 --> 00:02:24,130
"Come on, stay with me."

48
00:02:24,663 --> 00:02:26,932
"No, it's too hard."

49
00:02:27,566 --> 00:02:29,867
"Come on. This is our opportunity."

50
00:02:30,464 --> 00:02:34,477
"No. That body is broken.
It can no longer serve me."

51
00:02:34,501 --> 00:02:38,426
"Come on. Stay with me. We can do it.
We can do it together."

52
00:02:39,711 --> 00:02:41,253
I was at a crossroads.

53
00:02:41,877 --> 00:02:45,539
I knew if I didn't return to my body,
I'd have to leave this world forever.

54
00:02:46,695 --> 00:02:48,406
It was the fight of my life.

55
00:02:49,903 --> 00:02:54,043
After 10 days, I made the decision
to return to my body.

56
00:02:54,931 --> 00:02:57,316
And the internal bleeding stopped.

57
00:02:59,045 --> 00:03:02,137
The next concern
was whether I would walk again,

58
00:03:02,161 --> 00:03:04,471
because I was paralyzed
from the waist down.

59
00:03:04,962 --> 00:03:08,154
They said to my parents
that the neck break was a stable fracture,

60
00:03:08,178 --> 00:03:09,919
but the back was completely crushed:

61
00:03:09,943 --> 00:03:13,329
the vertebra at L1
was like you'd dropped a peanut,

62
00:03:13,353 --> 00:03:16,444
stepped on it, smashed it
into thousands of pieces.

63
00:03:16,468 --> 00:03:17,860
They'd have to operate.

64
00:03:19,043 --> 00:03:21,382
They went in. They put me on a beanbag.

65
00:03:21,406 --> 00:03:23,490
They cut me -- literally cut me in half.

66
00:03:23,514 --> 00:03:25,948
I have a scar that wraps
around my entire body.

67
00:03:26,966 --> 00:03:29,717
They picked as much
broken bone as they could

68
00:03:29,741 --> 00:03:31,418
that had lodged in my spinal cord.

69
00:03:31,442 --> 00:03:35,376
They took out two of my broken ribs
and they rebuilt my back --

70
00:03:35,400 --> 00:03:38,043
L1, they rebuilt it,
they took out another broken rib,

71
00:03:38,067 --> 00:03:41,456
they fused T12, L1 and L2 together.

72
00:03:41,480 --> 00:03:44,661
Then they stitched me up;
they took an entire hour to stitch me up.

73
00:03:44,685 --> 00:03:46,314
I woke up in intensive care,

74
00:03:46,338 --> 00:03:49,970
and the doctors were really excited
that the operation had been a success,

75
00:03:49,994 --> 00:03:52,565
because at that stage,
I had a little bit of movement

76
00:03:52,589 --> 00:03:53,747
in one of my big toes,

77
00:03:53,771 --> 00:03:56,811
and I thought, "Great,
because I'm going to the Olympics!"

78
00:03:56,835 --> 00:03:58,871
(Laughter)

79
00:03:58,895 --> 00:04:00,501
I had no idea.

80
00:04:00,525 --> 00:04:04,057
That's the sort of thing that happens
to someone else, not me, surely.

81
00:04:04,081 --> 00:04:06,462
But then the doctor
came over to me and she said,

82
00:04:06,486 --> 00:04:09,296
"Janine, the operation was a success,

83
00:04:09,320 --> 00:04:13,058
and we've picked as much bone
out of your spinal cord as we could.

84
00:04:13,082 --> 00:04:14,471
But the damage is permanent.

85
00:04:14,495 --> 00:04:17,543
The central nervous system
nerves -- there is no cure.

86
00:04:18,121 --> 00:04:20,416
You're what we call a partial paraplegic,

87
00:04:20,440 --> 00:04:23,408
and you'll have all of the injuries
that go along with that.

88
00:04:23,432 --> 00:04:26,295
You'll have no feeling
from the waist down,

89
00:04:26,319 --> 00:04:29,346
and at most, you might get
10 or 20 percent return.

90
00:04:30,124 --> 00:04:32,758
You'll have internal injuries
for the rest of your life.

91
00:04:32,782 --> 00:04:35,517
You'll have to use a catheter
for the rest of your life.

92
00:04:36,351 --> 00:04:40,678
And if you walk again, it will be
with calipers and a walking frame."

93
00:04:40,702 --> 00:04:41,877
And then she said,

94
00:04:41,901 --> 00:04:45,027
"Janine, you'll have to rethink
everything you do in your life,

95
00:04:45,051 --> 00:04:48,722
because you're never going to be able
to do the things you did before."

96
00:04:48,746 --> 00:04:49,823
(Gasps)

97
00:04:49,847 --> 00:04:52,259
I tried to grasp what she was saying.

98
00:04:52,283 --> 00:04:55,000
I was an athlete. That's all I knew.
That's all I'd done.

99
00:04:55,024 --> 00:04:57,828
If I couldn't do that,
then what could I do?

100
00:04:57,852 --> 00:04:59,662
And the question I asked myself is:

101
00:04:59,686 --> 00:05:01,163
If I couldn't do that,

102
00:05:02,088 --> 00:05:03,357
then who was I?

103
00:05:07,655 --> 00:05:11,125
They moved me from intensive care
to acute spinal.

104
00:05:11,149 --> 00:05:13,379
I was lying on a thin, hard spinal bed.

105
00:05:13,403 --> 00:05:14,864
I had no movement in my legs.

106
00:05:14,888 --> 00:05:18,236
I had tight stockings on
to protect from blood clots.

107
00:05:18,260 --> 00:05:21,127
I had one arm in plaster,
one arm tied down by drips.

108
00:05:21,151 --> 00:05:24,127
I had a neck brace and sandbags
on either side of my head

109
00:05:24,151 --> 00:05:26,097
and I saw my world through a mirror

110
00:05:26,121 --> 00:05:28,195
that was suspended above my head.

111
00:05:29,100 --> 00:05:32,553
I shared the ward with five other people,

112
00:05:32,577 --> 00:05:33,879
and the amazing thing is,

113
00:05:33,903 --> 00:05:37,449
because we were all lying paralyzed
in a spinal ward,

114
00:05:37,473 --> 00:05:39,879
we didn't know
what each other looked like.

115
00:05:39,903 --> 00:05:41,697
How amazing is that?

116
00:05:41,721 --> 00:05:47,855
How often in life do you get to make
friendships, judgment-free,

117
00:05:47,879 --> 00:05:49,845
purely based on spirit?

118
00:05:50,800 --> 00:05:53,433
And there were
no superficial conversations

119
00:05:53,457 --> 00:05:56,507
as we shared our innermost
thoughts, our fears,

120
00:05:56,531 --> 00:05:59,483
and our hopes for life
after the spinal ward.

121
00:06:01,101 --> 00:06:04,953
I remember one night,
one of the nurses came in, Jonathan,

122
00:06:04,977 --> 00:06:08,027
with a whole lot of plastic straws.

123
00:06:08,051 --> 00:06:10,313
He put a pile on top
of each of us, and he said,

124
00:06:10,337 --> 00:06:12,513
"Start threading them together."

125
00:06:13,185 --> 00:06:16,463
Well, there wasn't much else to do
in the spinal ward, so we did.

126
00:06:16,487 --> 00:06:17,512
(Laughter)

127
00:06:17,536 --> 00:06:20,353
And when we'd finished,
he went around silently

128
00:06:20,377 --> 00:06:25,693
and he joined all of the straws up
till it looped around the whole ward.

129
00:06:25,717 --> 00:06:26,884
And then he said,

130
00:06:26,908 --> 00:06:29,752
"OK everybody, hold on to your straws."

131
00:06:30,245 --> 00:06:33,027
And we did. And he said, "Right ...

132
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Now we're all connected."

133
00:06:37,469 --> 00:06:41,708
And as we held on and we breathed as one,

134
00:06:42,773 --> 00:06:45,343
we knew we weren't on this journey alone.

135
00:06:47,033 --> 00:06:50,759
And even lying paralyzed
in the spinal ward ...

136
00:06:51,742 --> 00:06:54,935
there were moments of incredible
depth and richness,

137
00:06:54,959 --> 00:06:57,435
of authenticity and connection

138
00:06:58,243 --> 00:07:00,641
that I had never experienced before.

139
00:07:02,449 --> 00:07:05,476
And each of us knew
that when we left the spinal ward,

140
00:07:07,237 --> 00:07:08,892
we would never be the same.

141
00:07:12,286 --> 00:07:15,024
After six months, it was time to go home.

142
00:07:15,950 --> 00:07:19,442
I remember Dad pushing me
outside in my wheelchair,

143
00:07:19,466 --> 00:07:21,600
wrapped in a plaster body cast,

144
00:07:22,408 --> 00:07:25,606
and feeling the sun on my face
for the first time.

145
00:07:25,630 --> 00:07:27,029
I soaked it up and I thought,

146
00:07:27,053 --> 00:07:30,281
"How could I ever
have taken this for granted?"

147
00:07:31,470 --> 00:07:34,201
I felt so incredibly grateful for my life.

148
00:07:35,203 --> 00:07:36,583
But before I left hospital,

149
00:07:36,607 --> 00:07:39,639
the head nurse had said to me,
"Janine, I want you to be ready,

150
00:07:39,663 --> 00:07:42,348
because when you get home,
something's going to happen."

151
00:07:42,372 --> 00:07:43,537
And I said, "What?"

152
00:07:43,561 --> 00:07:46,274
And she said, "You're going
to get depressed."

153
00:07:46,298 --> 00:07:49,284
And I said, "Not me,
not Janine the Machine,"

154
00:07:49,308 --> 00:07:51,022
which was my nickname.

155
00:07:51,046 --> 00:07:54,129
She said, "You are, because,
see, it happens to everyone.

156
00:07:54,153 --> 00:07:58,404
In the spinal ward, that's normal.
You're in a wheelchair. That's normal.

157
00:07:58,428 --> 00:08:02,023
But you're going to get home
and realize how different life is."

158
00:08:02,690 --> 00:08:04,086
And I got home.

159
00:08:05,052 --> 00:08:06,729
And something happened.

160
00:08:08,641 --> 00:08:10,714
I realized Sister Sam was right.

161
00:08:11,999 --> 00:08:13,388
I did get depressed.

162
00:08:14,943 --> 00:08:16,696
I was in my wheelchair.

163
00:08:16,720 --> 00:08:18,573
I had no feeling from the waist down,

164
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attached to a catheter bottle.

165
00:08:20,074 --> 00:08:21,224
I couldn't walk.

166
00:08:21,813 --> 00:08:23,980
I'd lost so much weight in hospital,

167
00:08:24,004 --> 00:08:26,576
I now weighed about 80 pounds.

168
00:08:28,050 --> 00:08:29,886
And I wanted to give up.

169
00:08:29,910 --> 00:08:33,982
All I wanted to do was put my running
shoes on and run out the door.

170
00:08:34,006 --> 00:08:37,165
I wanted my old life back.
I wanted my body back.

171
00:08:37,189 --> 00:08:39,591
And I can remember
Mom sitting on the end of my bed

172
00:08:39,615 --> 00:08:42,597
and saying, "I wonder if life
will ever be good again."

173
00:08:43,585 --> 00:08:45,511
And I thought, "How could it?

174
00:08:46,321 --> 00:08:49,826
Because I've lost
everything that I valued,

175
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everything that I'd worked towards.

176
00:08:51,983 --> 00:08:53,133
Gone."

177
00:08:54,993 --> 00:08:58,809
And the question I asked was,
"Why me? Why me?"

178
00:08:59,911 --> 00:09:01,437
And then I remembered

179
00:09:02,731 --> 00:09:05,752
my friends that were still
in the spinal ward,

180
00:09:05,776 --> 00:09:07,086
particularly Maria.

181
00:09:07,887 --> 00:09:09,348
Maria was in a car accident,

182
00:09:09,372 --> 00:09:11,297
and she woke up on her 16th birthday

183
00:09:11,321 --> 00:09:14,416
to the news that she was
a complete quadriplegic,

184
00:09:14,440 --> 00:09:16,709
had no movement from the neck down,

185
00:09:16,733 --> 00:09:19,731
had damage to her vocal chords,
and she couldn't talk.

186
00:09:20,747 --> 00:09:23,100
They told me, "We're going
to move you next to her

187
00:09:23,124 --> 00:09:25,160
because we think it will be good for her."

188
00:09:26,193 --> 00:09:29,926
I was worried. I didn't know
how I'd react to being next to her.

189
00:09:30,703 --> 00:09:34,569
I knew it would be challenging,
but it was actually a blessing,

190
00:09:34,593 --> 00:09:39,412
because Maria always smiled.

191
00:09:39,436 --> 00:09:44,172
She was always happy,
and even when she began to talk again,

192
00:09:44,196 --> 00:09:49,428
albeit difficult to understand,
she never complained, not once.

193
00:09:50,198 --> 00:09:55,200
And I wondered how had she ever
found that level of acceptance.

194
00:09:55,758 --> 00:10:00,025
And I realized
that this wasn't just my life;

195
00:10:00,571 --> 00:10:01,834
it was life itself.

196
00:10:02,409 --> 00:10:06,819
I realized that this wasn't just my pain;
it was everybody's pain.

197
00:10:07,314 --> 00:10:10,160
And then I knew, just like before,

198
00:10:10,184 --> 00:10:13,962
that I had a choice:
I could keep fighting this,

199
00:10:14,944 --> 00:10:19,547
or I could let go
and accept not only my body,

200
00:10:19,571 --> 00:10:21,965
but the circumstances of my life.

201
00:10:23,055 --> 00:10:25,720
And then I stopped asking, "Why me?"

202
00:10:26,476 --> 00:10:28,805
And I started to ask, "Why not me?"

203
00:10:29,932 --> 00:10:32,224
And then I thought to myself,

204
00:10:32,248 --> 00:10:36,879
maybe being at rock bottom
is actually the perfect place to start.

205
00:10:41,396 --> 00:10:44,415
I had never before thought of myself
as a creative person.

206
00:10:44,439 --> 00:10:47,600
I was an athlete; my body was a machine.

207
00:10:48,513 --> 00:10:52,935
But now I was about to embark
on the most creative project

208
00:10:52,959 --> 00:10:54,943
that any of us could ever do:

209
00:10:54,967 --> 00:10:56,802
that of rebuilding a life.

210
00:10:57,992 --> 00:11:01,427
And even though I had absolutely
no idea what I was going to do,

211
00:11:01,451 --> 00:11:04,691
in that uncertainty came
a sense of freedom.

212
00:11:05,619 --> 00:11:07,898
I was no longer tied to a set path.

213
00:11:08,605 --> 00:11:13,504
I was free to explore
life's infinite possibilities.

214
00:11:14,258 --> 00:11:18,388
And that realization
was about to change my life.

215
00:11:20,595 --> 00:11:25,184
Sitting at home in my wheelchair
and my plaster body cast,

216
00:11:25,208 --> 00:11:27,351
an airplane flew overhead.

217
00:11:28,482 --> 00:11:32,153
I looked up, and I thought
to myself, "That's it!

218
00:11:32,875 --> 00:11:35,621
If I can't walk,
then I might as well fly."

219
00:11:35,645 --> 00:11:36,660
(Laughter)

220
00:11:36,684 --> 00:11:39,313
I said, "Mom, I'm going
to learn how to fly."

221
00:11:39,337 --> 00:11:41,091
She said, "That's nice, dear."

222
00:11:41,115 --> 00:11:43,190
(Laughter)

223
00:11:43,214 --> 00:11:45,585
I said, "Pass me the yellow pages."

224
00:11:45,609 --> 00:11:48,342
She passed me the phone book,
I rang up the flying school,

225
00:11:48,366 --> 00:11:51,187
I said I'd like to make a booking
to come out for a flight.

226
00:11:51,211 --> 00:11:53,527
They said, "When do you want to come out?"

227
00:11:53,551 --> 00:11:57,121
I said, "Well, I have to get a friend
to drive me because I can't drive.

228
00:11:57,145 --> 00:11:59,539
Sort of can't walk, either.
Is that a problem?"

229
00:11:59,563 --> 00:12:01,213
I made a booking, and weeks later,

230
00:12:01,237 --> 00:12:04,010
my friend Chris and my mom
drove me out to the airport,

231
00:12:04,034 --> 00:12:06,432
all 80 pounds of me covered
in a plaster body cast

232
00:12:06,456 --> 00:12:07,890
in a baggy pair of overalls.

233
00:12:07,914 --> 00:12:09,012
(Laughter)

234
00:12:09,036 --> 00:12:11,792
I can tell you, I did not
look like the ideal candidate

235
00:12:11,816 --> 00:12:13,182
to get a pilot's license.

236
00:12:13,206 --> 00:12:14,800
(Laughter)

237
00:12:14,824 --> 00:12:17,277
I'm holding on to the counter
because I can't stand.

238
00:12:17,301 --> 00:12:19,365
I said, "Hi, I'm here
for a flying lesson."

239
00:12:19,389 --> 00:12:23,023
They took one look and ran
out the back to draw short straws.

240
00:12:23,047 --> 00:12:25,990
"You get her." "No, no, you take her."

241
00:12:26,014 --> 00:12:29,209
Finally a guy goes, "Hi, I'm Andrew.
I'm going to take you flying."

242
00:12:29,233 --> 00:12:30,407
I go, "Great!"

243
00:12:30,431 --> 00:12:32,126
They get me out on the tarmac,

244
00:12:32,150 --> 00:12:35,618
and there was this red, white and blue
airplane -- it was beautiful.

245
00:12:35,642 --> 00:12:39,428
They had to slide me up on the wing
to put me in the cockpit.

246
00:12:39,452 --> 00:12:42,211
They sat me down. There are buttons
and dials everywhere.

247
00:12:42,235 --> 00:12:45,840
I'm going, "Wow, how do you ever know
what all these buttons and dials do?"

248
00:12:45,864 --> 00:12:48,515
Andrew got in the front,
started the plane, and said,

249
00:12:48,539 --> 00:12:50,517
"Would you like to have a go at taxiing?"

250
00:12:50,541 --> 00:12:53,287
That's when you use your feet
to control the rudder pedals

251
00:12:53,311 --> 00:12:55,158
to control the airplane on the ground.

252
00:12:55,182 --> 00:12:57,057
I said, "No, I can't use my legs."

253
00:12:57,081 --> 00:12:58,264
He went, "Oh."

254
00:12:58,288 --> 00:13:01,090
I said, "But I can use
my hands," and he said, "OK."

255
00:13:01,114 --> 00:13:04,047
So he got over to the runway,
and he applied the power.

256
00:13:04,071 --> 00:13:06,291
And as we took off down the runway,

257
00:13:06,315 --> 00:13:10,015
and the wheels lifted up off the tarmac,
and we became airborne,

258
00:13:11,062 --> 00:13:14,689
I had the most incredible
sense of freedom.

259
00:13:15,665 --> 00:13:17,212
And Andrew said to me,

260
00:13:18,237 --> 00:13:20,093
as we got over the training area,

261
00:13:20,974 --> 00:13:22,888
"You see that mountain over there?"

262
00:13:23,250 --> 00:13:24,793
And I said, "Yeah."

263
00:13:24,817 --> 00:13:29,294
And he said, "Well, you take the controls,
and you fly towards that mountain."

264
00:13:29,318 --> 00:13:31,777
And as I looked up, I realized

265
00:13:31,801 --> 00:13:35,242
that he was pointing
towards the Blue Mountains,

266
00:13:35,266 --> 00:13:36,969
where the journey had begun.

267
00:13:38,496 --> 00:13:40,075
And I took the controls,

268
00:13:40,899 --> 00:13:42,342
and I was flying.

269
00:13:42,978 --> 00:13:45,916
And I was a long, long way
from that spinal ward.

270
00:13:45,940 --> 00:13:48,531
I knew right then
that I was going to be a pilot.

271
00:13:49,713 --> 00:13:52,345
Didn't know how on Earth
I'd ever pass a medical.

272
00:13:52,369 --> 00:13:53,479
(Laughter)

273
00:13:53,503 --> 00:13:56,758
But I'd worry about that later,
because right now, I had a dream.

274
00:13:56,782 --> 00:14:00,156
So I went home, I got a training
diary out, and I had a plan.

275
00:14:01,084 --> 00:14:03,803
And I practiced my walking
as much as I could,

276
00:14:03,827 --> 00:14:06,523
and I went from the point
of two people holding me up ...

277
00:14:07,573 --> 00:14:09,134
to one person holding me up ...

278
00:14:09,970 --> 00:14:12,438
to the point where I could
walk around the furniture

279
00:14:12,462 --> 00:14:14,197
as long as it wasn't too far apart.

280
00:14:14,221 --> 00:14:15,958
And then I made great progression,

281
00:14:15,982 --> 00:14:18,268
to the point where I could walk
around the house,

282
00:14:18,292 --> 00:14:19,982
holding onto the walls, like this.

283
00:14:20,425 --> 00:14:22,656
And Mom said she was forever following me,

284
00:14:22,680 --> 00:14:24,179
wiping off my fingerprints.

285
00:14:24,203 --> 00:14:26,552
(Laughter)

286
00:14:26,576 --> 00:14:28,716
But at least she always knew where I was.

287
00:14:28,740 --> 00:14:30,818
(Laughter)

288
00:14:30,842 --> 00:14:33,315
So while the doctors continued to operate

289
00:14:33,339 --> 00:14:35,391
and put my body back together again,

290
00:14:35,415 --> 00:14:37,236
I went on with my theory study.

291
00:14:38,069 --> 00:14:42,395
And then eventually, amazingly,
I passed my pilot's medical,

292
00:14:42,419 --> 00:14:44,627
and that was my green light to fly.

293
00:14:44,651 --> 00:14:47,469
And I spent every moment I could
out at that flying school,

294
00:14:47,493 --> 00:14:49,047
way out of my comfort zone,

295
00:14:49,071 --> 00:14:52,142
all these young guys that wanted
to be Qantas pilots, you know,

296
00:14:52,166 --> 00:14:55,095
and little old hop-along me
in first my plaster cast,

297
00:14:55,119 --> 00:14:57,594
and then my steel brace,
my baggy overalls,

298
00:14:57,618 --> 00:15:01,194
my bag of medication
and catheters and my limp.

299
00:15:01,218 --> 00:15:02,832
They use to look at me and think,

300
00:15:02,856 --> 00:15:06,134
"Oh, who is she kidding?
She's never going to be able to do this."

301
00:15:06,158 --> 00:15:07,942
And sometimes I thought that, too.

302
00:15:07,966 --> 00:15:09,569
But that didn't matter,

303
00:15:09,593 --> 00:15:12,375
because now there was something
inside that burned

304
00:15:12,399 --> 00:15:15,415
that far outweighed my injuries.

305
00:15:16,431 --> 00:15:18,721
And little goals
kept me going along the way,

306
00:15:18,745 --> 00:15:21,619
and eventually I got
my private pilot's license.

307
00:15:22,222 --> 00:15:26,407
Then I learned to navigate,
and I flew my friends around Australia.

308
00:15:27,352 --> 00:15:30,303
And then I learned to fly
an airplane with two engines

309
00:15:30,327 --> 00:15:32,129
and I got my twin-engine rating.

310
00:15:32,746 --> 00:15:36,056
And then I learned to fly in bad weather
as well as fine weather,

311
00:15:36,080 --> 00:15:37,879
and got my instrument rating.

312
00:15:38,569 --> 00:15:41,236
And then I got
my commercial pilot's license.

313
00:15:41,260 --> 00:15:43,488
And then I got my instructor rating.

314
00:15:44,298 --> 00:15:47,158
And then I found myself
back at that same school

315
00:15:47,182 --> 00:15:49,650
where I'd gone for that very first flight,

316
00:15:49,674 --> 00:15:51,554
teaching other people how to fly ...

317
00:15:52,678 --> 00:15:56,792
just under 18 months
after I'd left the spinal ward.

318
00:15:56,816 --> 00:16:03,816
(Applause)

319
00:16:06,579 --> 00:16:08,634
(Applause ends)

320
00:16:08,658 --> 00:16:10,661
And then I thought, "Why stop there?

321
00:16:10,685 --> 00:16:12,707
Why not learn to fly upside down?"

322
00:16:12,731 --> 00:16:13,833
(Laughter)

323
00:16:13,857 --> 00:16:16,643
And I did, and I learned
to fly upside down

324
00:16:16,667 --> 00:16:18,992
and became an aerobatics
flying instructor.

325
00:16:19,016 --> 00:16:20,864
(Laughter)

326
00:16:20,888 --> 00:16:23,871
And Mom and Dad? Never been up.

327
00:16:23,895 --> 00:16:27,363
(Laughter)

328
00:16:27,387 --> 00:16:32,616
But then I knew for certain
that although my body might be limited,

329
00:16:32,640 --> 00:16:35,402
it was my spirit that was unstoppable.

330
00:16:38,420 --> 00:16:40,759
The philosopher Lao Tzu once said,

331
00:16:41,743 --> 00:16:43,742
"When you let go of what you are,

332
00:16:43,766 --> 00:16:46,251
you become what you might be."

333
00:16:47,197 --> 00:16:52,473
I now know that it wasn't until I let go
of who I thought I was

334
00:16:52,497 --> 00:16:55,581
that I was able to create
a completely new life.

335
00:16:56,480 --> 00:17:00,718
It wasn't until I let go
of the life I thought I should have ...

336
00:17:01,861 --> 00:17:04,866
that I was able to embrace
the life that was waiting for me.

337
00:17:06,272 --> 00:17:08,921
I now know that my real strength

338
00:17:08,945 --> 00:17:11,007
never came from my body.

339
00:17:12,341 --> 00:17:17,240
And although my physical capabilities
have changed dramatically,

340
00:17:17,264 --> 00:17:20,303
who I am is unchanged.

341
00:17:21,415 --> 00:17:25,267
The pilot light inside of me
was still alight,

342
00:17:25,291 --> 00:17:28,171
just as it is in each and every one of us.

343
00:17:30,262 --> 00:17:32,062
I know that I'm not my body.

344
00:17:33,244 --> 00:17:35,637
And I also know that you're not yours.

345
00:17:36,812 --> 00:17:40,966
And then it no longer matters
what you look like,

346
00:17:40,990 --> 00:17:44,461
where you come from,
or what you do for a living.

347
00:17:45,397 --> 00:17:51,081
All that matters is that we continue
to fan the flame of humanity

348
00:17:51,105 --> 00:17:55,035
by living our lives
as the ultimate creative expression

349
00:17:55,059 --> 00:17:57,132
of who we really are,

350
00:17:58,607 --> 00:18:00,677
because we are all connected

351
00:18:01,324 --> 00:18:04,226
by millions and millions of straws.

352
00:18:06,059 --> 00:18:08,832
And it's time to join those up

353
00:18:08,856 --> 00:18:10,175
and to hang on.

354
00:18:10,901 --> 00:18:14,139
And if we are to move
towards our collective bliss ...

355
00:18:15,155 --> 00:18:17,711
it's time we shed our focus
on the physical

356
00:18:17,735 --> 00:18:21,097
and instead embrace
the virtues of the heart.

357
00:18:21,121 --> 00:18:23,849
So raise your straws if you'll join me.

358
00:18:24,704 --> 00:18:25,854
(Applause)

359
00:18:25,878 --> 00:18:27,039
Thank you.

360
00:18:27,063 --> 00:18:32,110
(Applause)

361
00:18:32,134 --> 00:18:33,460
Thank you.

362
00:18:33,484 --> 00:18:37,230
(Applause)