about 2 and a half months after my paralysis I found my way back to the water it was the beginning of April of 2008 I just turned 19 and I went to the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center as a spectator for the 2008 Paro Olympic trials for the Beijing games I knew nothing about the paralympic movement other than the newspaper article that my sister saw in the newspaper that morning saying that it was going on but I had been a swimmer my entire childhood both my older sisters swam and two competed since the age of seven it was our world and so we thought let's go to the pool I looked over the railing that night at the Aquatic Center a timid terrified 19-year-old girl and I looked on to a pool deck where I saw a path forward I saw something more I saw a life that showed me that this does not have to be a contingency prize to What could have been but it could be the opportunity to be so much more than I ever thought possible on that pool deck it was athlete after athlete fighting for their chance to represent Team USA at the second largest sporting event in the world the par Olympic Games and I was in complete and utter awe I leaned over to my sister that night and I said what if and it was the first time I approached that phrase from a place of possibility it was the first time that what if was served up in a way of looking ahead to something rather than looking back and asking what if I wouldn't have gotten out of bed on January 21st 2008 I let myself hope that day I let myself feel that little sliver and her response was something along the lines of why not those simple interactions they set our Pace they give us the opportunity to see the world through a different lens if my whatif had been responded to was some sort of phrase of maybe someday let's get through this moment right now it's a lot to think of that or some other variation of those words that sliver of Hope would have gone out just as fast as it came through but it wasn't it was met with why not and two days later I went back to that pool and I got in the water for the first time since my paralysis how we choose to show up doesn't just matter for ourselves it matters for how we show up for those around us when we reach these moments in our careers we're not just meeting an individual goal it is not a just just a successful moment for ourselves it is a moment where we now have people that look to us people that look up to us that aspire to be us people that maybe want to compete with us a little bit because that's what this is all about too right but we have people that are looking to us to show the path forward people that are looking to you and when they look to you and they say what if it is your responsibility to say some version of why not to bring them under your wing to carry them along the way to show them the path to be their mentor to support them that's what this is all about