There are no rules in snowboarding.
In snowboarding, I've always looked at really strong competitors through a lens of gratitude rather than envy in the sense that the better my competition is, the more it forces me to work hard, focus, and be better myself if I want to succeed, which I do.
As humans, we need to reach out for support.
There are plenty of people who have legs who are way more disabled than me.
As for how do I respond to those who want to throw stones, well, I don't.
All through high school, I was incredibly healthy. I loved the outdoors, and I loved snowboarding because of the freedom.
I guess I'm always up for a challenge.
I was 19 years old, and I felt like I had the flu one day. Within 24 hours, I was in the hospital on life support, and I was given less than a 2 percent chance of living. It took five days for the doctors to find out that I had contracted bacterial meningitis.
You don't always have to have the most amazing story. It's learning to share the story you have that counts.
We all have things that limit us and that challenge us. But really, our real limitations are the ones we believe.
Growing up in the hot Last Vegas desert, all I wanted was to be free. I would daydream about traveling the world, living in a place where it snowed, and I would picture all of the stories that I would go on to tell.
Pfizer's actually teamed up with my nonprofit organization, which is called Adaptive Action Sports. I cofounded this organization in 2005 to help people with physical disabilities get involved in action sports, go snowboarding, skateboarding.
I lost my spleen, I lost the hearing in my left ear, so I had a lot of internal organ damage.
I have a very good sense of my body and where it's at. Although I don't feel the ground in the same way that somebody else would, I'm very aware... I can feel pressure, and I know exactly where my toes are and exactly where my heel is.
My dad had given my sister and I our starter car, a red, old 1985 Chevy Blazer. It was so beat up, the taillights would fall off, and we would use red duct tape.
In my dreams, whatever I am doing, I look down to see if I have prosthetics. It sets my time frame in my dream, I think. I'd have these dreams that I am running and launching myself, and I look down and see that I have prosthetics. I have a lot of those, where I do great, amazing things with my prosthetics.
For me, I just began, eventually, to embrace what I had. This is what I have to deal with and, not just deal with, but this is what I have to share, and how can I do that the best way.
When you are truly you and share who you are with the world and be confident in who you are, it doesn't matter what size you are. It doesn't matter what your different body parts look like.
I've learned that borders are where the actual ends, but also where the imagination and the story begins.
I've never wanted sympathy votes in anything I do in my life.
