I feel really pleasured and pleased to
be with you
today all of you and thank you for being
here thank you were sharing a time and
thank you for allowing me to talk to you
today I would like you all to take a
moment to picture this a 27 week old
baby girl has just been born
she sure has she is shown to her father
then to her mother and taken to the a
nice and ICU because her lungs aren’t
developed and she can’t breathe it’s
uncertain whether she’ll survive the
night it’s uncertain whether she’ll live
at all but of course she does a year
passes her parents notice she’s noticed
she’s not developing as she should they
put her into therapy like a year passes
and no progress is made hardly any on
their own they try to find they try to
find out all they possibly can to figure
out what’s going on with with their
daughter this shouldn’t be happening and
and they come to the realization that
come to the realization that she has
cerebral palsy CP the diagnosis is
serious it is real
it’s quadriplegic she is they are told
there are no expectations absolutely
none but from the beginning neither the
prognosis
neither the diagnosis nor the prognosis
stopped the parents from giving the
daughter every thing everything that we
that we deserve as human beings they
gave everything to her that she could
possibly need to live as a human being
because they saw in her eyes and her
smile the spark and life that we have
when we are first born they saw that
potential and they went with it what
they saw was nothing more than what we
all have pure potential they use the
date untap they attacked it and they
made a future where there would where
there was none when there should have
been none from the beginning there was
no there was there was absolute belief
that this child would turn out as they
had hoped there was no doubt that this
child would become the woman you see
before you today
the woman that they have that my parents
have made me is all because of potential
and the belief that potential is all we
have to work with it’s not about
limitation is not about disability it’s
not about putting putting caps on
yourself putting lids on potential it’s
all about embracing
change and embracing the change that we
have to have our our lives be completely
be completely different than what they
could be or what they should have been
in in my life I have learned a very
simple but powerful truth life is
difficult but when you don’t accept that
life is difficult life becomes
impossible that’s the first noble truth
that the Buddha taught back in 600 BC
and that truth has stuck with me from
the beginning of my life to the be get
into the to the current day to the
current time that we have that we are
sitting here today listening to this
truth again and for me it’s all about
community community is nothing more nor
nothing less then all the people we
connected to in our lives and are
connected to community doesn’t stop
within the neighborhood neighborhood it
doesn’t stop with social media it goes
on with with every person we touch and
every person we touch is impacted by the
voice we have by the way we treat them
by the way we embrace life by the way
that they embraced us and our community
goes beyond goes beyond family it goes
beyond friends it goes beyond every
single every single boundary that we can
possibly think of and for me what
happens with that is absolutely
absolutely magical when you do not
embrace when you do not see boundaries
there are none when you do not see
boundaries you can make new
possibilities and for me all that all
the boundaries that exist in the world
our just physical this chair is not even
is real right
but this chair is just only as real as
you think of it as you think of it to be
for me it’s not about being bound to a
wilter it’s not about being restricted
it’s about having a freedom that I
otherwise would not have had I otherwise
would not have had the freedom to move
around nor the freedom to act it’s about
freedom life is about freedom all life
all community all connection is about
taking that freedom and going forward
with it if I could change if I could
make a difference why can’t we all make
a difference why can we all tear down
bridges and tear down walls and build
bridges instead why can’t we all make a
change to change our lives to transform
them that’s the message I want to leave
you with and that’s the message you
deserve to hear because you can make a
mark on the world and live your life in
the limits thank you [Applause]