and you were the author

how would you want your story to go.

That's the question that changed my life forever.

Growing up in a

hot Las Vegas desert

all I wanted was to be free.

I would daydream

about traveling the world

living in a place where it snowed

and I would picture all of the stories that I would go on to tell.

At the age of nineteen,

the day after I graduated high school,

I moved to a place where it snowed

and I became

a massage therapist.

With this job all I needed were my hands and my massage table by my side.

And I could go anywhere.

For the first time in my life

I felt free,

independent

and completely in control of my life.

That is

until my life took a detour.

I went home from work early one day

with what I thought was a flu

and less than twenty-four hours later

I was in a hospital

on life support

with less than a 2% chance of living

It wasn't until days later

as I lay in a coma

that the doctors diagnosed me

with bacterial meningitis.

A vaccine preventable blood infection.

Over the course of two-and-a-half months

I lost my spleen

my kidneys

the hearing in my left ear

and both of my legs below the knee.

When my parents

wheeled me out of the hospital

I felt like I'd been pieced back together

like a patch-work doll.

I thought the worst was over

until weeks later when I saw my new legs for the first time.

The calves were bulky blocks of metal

with pipes folded together for the ankles

and a yellow rubber foot

with a raised rubber line

from the toes to the ankle

to look like a vein.

I didn't know what to expect but i wasn't expecting that.

With my mom by my side

and tears streaming down our faces

I strapped on these chunky legs

and I stood up.

They were so painful

and so confining

that all I cound think was --

how am I ever going to travel the world on these things.

How was I ever going to live

the life full of adventure

and stories as I always wanted

and how was I going to snowboard again.

That day I went home, I crawled into bed

and this is what my life looked like for the next few months.

Me pass out,

escaping from reality,

with my legs resting by my side.

I was absolutely

physically

and emotionally

broken.

But

I knew that in order to move forward

I had to let go

of the old Amy

and learn to embrace

the new Amy.

And that's when it dawned on me

that I didn't have to be five foot five anymore.

I could be as tall as I wanted. (Laughter)

Or as short as I wanted, depending on who I was dating. (Laughter)

And if I snowboard again

my feet aren't going to get cold. (Laughter)

And best of all I thought

I can make my feet the size of all the shoes that are on the sales rack. (Laughter)

And I did! So there are benefites here.

It was this moment

that I asked myself that life defining question.

"If my life were a book

and I were the author

how would I want this story to go."

And I began to daydream,

I daydreamed like I did as a little girl.

And I imagined myself

walking gracefully

helping other people through my journey

and snowboarding again.

And didn't just see myself

carving down on mountain of powder

I could actually feel it.

I could feel the wind against my face and a beat

of my racing heart

as if it were happening in that very moment.

And that is when

a new chapter in my life began.

Four months later I was back up on a snowboard

although things didn't go quite as I expected

my knees and ankles wouldn't bend, and at one point

I traumatized all the steers on the chairlift when I..

I fell

and my legs still attached to my snowboard (Laughter)

were flying down the mountain. (Laughter)

And

I was on top of the mountain still.

I was so shocked, I was just as shocked as everybody else

and I was so discouraged, but

I knew that if i could find the right pair of feet

that I would be able to do this again.

And this is when I learned

that our borders and obstacles can only do two things.

One: stop us in our tracks,

or two: force us to get creative.

I did a year of research, but still couldn't figure out what kind of legs to use

couldn't find any resources that could help me

so I decided to make a pair myself.

My leg maker and I put random parts together

and we made a pair of feet that I could snowboard in.

As you can see

rusty bolts, rubber, wood and neon pink duct tape.

And yes I can change may toe nail polish.

It was these legs and the best twenty first birthday gift I could ever receive --

a new kidney from my dad

that allowed me to follow my dreams again.

I started snowboarding

then I went back to work, then I went back to school. Then in 2005

I co-founded a non-profit organization

for youth and young adults with physical disabilities so that they could get

involved with action sports.

From there had the opportunity to go to South Africa

Where I helped to put shoes on thousands of children's feet so they can attend school.

And just at this past February

i won two back-to-back world cup gold medals. (Applause)

Which made me

the highest-ranked adaptive female snowboarder in the world.

Eleven years ago

when I lost my legs I had no idea what to expect.

But if you asked me today, if I would ever want to change my situation,

I would have to say no.

Because my legs haven't disabled me. If anything they have enabled me, they forced me

to rely on my imagination

and to believe in the possibilities.

And that's why I believe that our imaginations can be used as tools for

breaking through borders.

Because in our minds we can do anything

and we can be anything.

It's believing in those dreams,

and facing our fears head-on

that allows us to live our lives beyond our limits.

And although today is about innovation without borders, I have to say

that in my life

innovation has only been possible because of my borders.

I've learned that

borders are where the actual ends,

also where imagination

and the story begins.

So the thought that I would like to challenge you with today,

is that maybe instead of looking at our challenges and our limitations

as something negative or bad,

we can begin to look at them as blessings

magnificent gifts that can be used to ignite our imaginations

and help us go further, than we ever knew we could go.

It's not about breaking down borders

it's about pushing off of them

and seeing

what amazing places

he might bring us. Thank you. (Applause)