If you can see it in your mind, you can hold it in your hand. I was born and raised in Pierrefonds Quebec & I grew up in the west Island. Or does it?
Enjoying my youth as I grew up playing sports and enjoying life. I guess you can say I was more geared towards athletics not really paying much attention in school. I always did enough to get by but that was it. I focused more on sports and what was going to happen later that day or the next, than I ever did school work or expanding my mind. Through out high school (specifically) we all ran into d
ifferent problems & challenges. That said even if it was the same thing we would be experiencing at the time, we all perceived it differently. In most cases we felt totally alone. Only to realize as we get older, everyone went through it and we are more in common than we might think. Time gives us Perspective, right? Sometimes it takes a traumatic event in our lives for us to see what’s really going on. In fact in most cases it takes this kind of event before we change our state of mind. This is a very unfortunate thing in our lives. Empathy among high school & college students has gone down almost 40% in the last 20 years. Students are having a harder & harder time dealing with depression and their emotions over all. Because of this I’m telling my story and speaking to people about Perspective. Showing people through my actions that it is up to YOU, individually, to develop and build the very best “SELF” you can achieve. My intention is to come in and show how through hard work, perseverance and a never say die attitude life can be what you make it, no matter the circumstance. Unfortunately, it was a traumatic accident that gave me a whole new perspective on life. That said I’ve been truly blessed to have the ability to share it with people. My story begins November,4,2007 when my life changed forever. I was speeding home in a 40 zone going between 60-70 km/hr. This led me to loss control of the car as something came out into the road and by avoiding it I lost control of the car and had a very bad accident. Leaving me paralyzed from the waste down. Although my accident was life threatening and changed my life for ever, I came out of it very positive. Finding the good in every moment instead of focusing on what I’ve ‘lost’ I decided to focus on what I ‘still had’. I focused on having the best life possible. Now if you truly think about it, in this situation there are only two ways to go. A Positive outlook or a Negative one. It is down to each individual and how they perceive this life changing event, how the rest of their lives are going to play out. I for one decided very early that I would have a positive perspective on it and focus on what I still could do not what I couldn’t. And this decision has led me to speaking in front of and having one on ones with people of all ages and backgrounds. From paraplegics to quadriplegics to able bodied people alike we all need a little Perspective in our lives and my hope and wish is by telling my story, people don’t have to live it. Despite my accident I went on the participate with Team Canada and the wheelchair basketball team before 2012 London games. My choice to focus on the positive has also given me the opportunity to travel the word and see beautiful sights and meet amazing people. It has also given me the opportunity to help people get through some of the hardest times in life. By opening myself, I trust that everyone will come away from the talk refreshed with a better state of mine.
