Born STUBborn

The "Attacks" in New York City that occurred, 9/11/2001 played a large role in shaping the future of my entire generation. I had already lost my dad, my idol, to cancer. Since then, I had been looking for a fight and I was about to turn 18 in 2001. After a quick and dirty deployment to Iraq with our nations Army, where I lost a leg in combat. I came home to begin a life-long search, not yet realizing the extent of what I left overseas. Looking back, I feel extremely lucky to have been in the right place at the right time and supported by enough of the right people to witness and even maybe help to influence world change. However small my part, my wildest dreams were fulfilled. What I share with you is my perspective on the story of the creation of the sport of Paralympic snowboarding. From its infancy into a blossoming sport, and then on into a regimented and structured professional business. These stories include the quart-ship of a star-studded couple that brought up our sport as if it were their child. How his passion in pursuit of a woman led the charge to put us up in lights. I want to expand your view of ability. And I want to inspire you. I'll include what it took on a local, a regional, a national, an international and then eventually a Paralympic level as well, because that's the path we took. It took cooperation and competition at all those levels to make it happen. Along the way I got to hug Oprah, I met Fergie, and I ran into the beautiful Miss Lindsay Vohn at an A list party in New York at Carnegie Hall. I was there to present Cher her lifetime achievement award. Snowboard royalty, Senor Blanca himself, once patted me on the back in the gates above a 22-foot super pipe, and when President George W Bush came to Walter Reed Medical Center to award a few of us medals, He used a four-letter word while speaking to my mother. Scouts honor! What I'll add is my account of why our sport took off, what I think made us successful, what motivated, and what inspired me, one of the athletes. This will be a collection of accounts surrounding the abundantly determined individuals that had the required passion for their sport to stick it out against the odds; And to have faith in our collective dream while we were still blazing our own trail. Finally, along the way, I hope to help my daughter understand the meaning of the word, "Perseverance," and show her why I survived, because I was, "Born STUBborn!"