In late 2009, I was still doing occupational therapy (OT) at LDS Hospital. OT seemed like an hour dedicated to remind me of all of the simple things I was no longer able to do like eat, brush my teeth or put on my own socks. However, if I had not gone to OT I would have never gotten the idea to pursue Spinal Ride.

On my way into OT I noticed a picture of a quadriplegic riding a hand cycle hanging on the wall. It was a picture of Chad Hymas crossing the finish line of his record breaking 513 mile journey. My initial thought was “I can beat that.” I wheeled by the poster for a two times a week for a few months, stopping every time to look at it and think how easy it would be for me; the coolest, toughest, smartest quadriplegic ever, to beat his record. It wasn’t long before my being in a wheelchair had humbled me, and had me thinking like a normal person and not like my “invincible” 18 year old friends.

The thought of the record held by Chad stuck with me throughout the next four years. Like many other 22 year old people, I still had not decided what I was going to do for a career; especially now that my options had been limited. Early one morning as I was training my service dog, I began to think about the picture on the wall from four years ago. I said to myself, “I should try to break the record. Maybe in the process and through the struggle, I will discover what I want to do for a career.”

Shortly after I began training, I started speaking in front of different companies and rotary clubs to find sponsors or people to help fundraise. I immediately fell in love with public speaking and found what I was going to do for a career.

Recently I was talking to a friend and I told him that if I don’t complete this journey I’m going to feel like a failure. After thinking about what I told my friend, I realized I was completely wrong. I have had so many small victories, learned so many lessons, and had so many positive experiences that never would have happened if I hadn’t tried. I would rather be he who gave it all and failed, than the spectator who tried nothing but to critique my failure. Theodore Roosevelt said “It is hard to fail, but it is worse to never have tried to succeed.” The biggest lesson I learned from this is that if we encounter defeat, it does not mean we are defeated.