I didn't think about money or cars or anything like that.
Every day that I am healthy, I want to use that day to its fullest now.
Dancers know how to move their arms and their hands. But I don't know the first thing about how to move my arms and hands gracefully.
I knew what I didn't want. I didn't want people to feel sorry for me. I didn't want people to see me as disabled. I wanted to live a life of adventure and stories.
I simply do the things that inspire me, be that snowboarding, designing clothing, or dancing.
Dancing is about expressing yourself, and the more walls you let down, the better.
I kind of had to figure stuff out on my own and get myself snowboarding competitively again. I went through all types of different legs to try to learn which were going to work for me. Luckily, I was able to figure it out.
My legs haven't disabled me. If anything, they've enabled me.
I'm so comfortable on my snowboard that I don't have to think about it very much; it's somewhat second nature.
After I lost my legs, I got invited to my old high school, and I shared my stories with all the classes. I remember I was so nervous and didn't know where to start, but I knew I had information they could take away.
If somebody would've told me that I was going to lose my legs at the age of 19, I would've thought there's absolutely no way I'd be able to handle that. But then it happened, and I realized that there's so much more to live for, that my life isn't about my legs.
I'm not trying to be an inspiration, but I'm flattered to be considered one.
Just the thought of being on Oprah's radar at all is humbling, but to actually have her take time get on the phone with me kind of blows my mind.
I want to live a fulfilling life.
I always felt really lucky that I only lost my legs, because it could've been so much worse.
We did everything we could to save my legs, and it just came to a point where if we didn't amputate my legs, I wouldn't survive. In that situation, you kind of go into survival mode, and you find strength.
I like moving, challenging myself.
When I turned 16 and got my license, the Chevy Blazer was passed down from my sister, so it was very much a starter car.
For me, a bad day is when I have nothing going on.
We've all seen that every challenge we've gone through, we've learned something from. It's not getting hung up on the challenges but figuring out how to get ahead.
