 One of the most challenging times of my life is I was told that I may not get to play with my kids and by the time I was 30 I'd maybe be in a wheelchair because my legs just weren't working the way they were supposed to. And it was kind of a joke but it was kind of real and I was 23 years old, I'm laying on my back at the football room and Dr. looks at me and he goes you're going to need your knee replaced and 23 years old. And so I went in for an experimental surgery at the University of Minnesota to do something that the surgery they no longer do but they implanted a cadaver implant into a trope of my femur to see if we can provide more stability and cushion in my knee and and that was the end of my career basically it was the end of sports for me at any kind of level and but I didn't know what I was signing up for I didn't realize that I was gonna lose the use of my leg for a year. I thought it was my only path and only option and the truth is is one of the it's one of the greatest things that happened to me now 20 some years later but at the time I realized something that you know when you're on your back I was literally in a CPM for 90 days 10 hours a day it was an experimental surgery I got the long I got the long part of it and then basically I was on crutches for six more months and then I went to a cane and the prescription after that there's a glint like that was my protocol and there was no rehab that was strength driven so it was really it was really a hard time but I learned something about myself is that it's when I really put together these pillars of life right and these have been written by by numerous people but you have your physical body right you have your emotional spiritual and I call the chemical biochemical body and I mean physical is like I was a person that was an exercise meant everything to me if I didn't exercise like life didn't matter that's how I felt at the time I was young I didn't have kids yet and so it was everything to me and then I got to go away for me by partly my choice and partly you know the doctor's recommendation and I realized how insufficient I was in my emotional state how that if exercise is so important to me well what happens if it's gone what happens if it's taken away who am I then and it was a it was looking in the mirror wasn't easy it was one of those things where you realize that that you know there wasn't much more to me and I realized I needed to grow in a lot of other ways I need to grow emotionally I need to grow my relationships I need to grow spiritually I needed to understand you know maybe why I was so addicted to exercise and what am I missing in my life and and it was an eye opener for me it started me on a path and a journey to understand that I needed to find a better truth of who I was and that my physical fitness my sports athletics didn't define me as who I was and it just it helped me immerse myself into education into the human body and to understanding people better and I rehab my leg I still rehab my leg but I went on a quest for almost 15 years to rehab my leg to get it back so I could function relatively normal and now that's the least of my worries physically least my worries mentally and it's been a big blessing in disguise that that I had this surgery because it helped me really mold me to become who I am today and helping people around the world live the best life they can live and without that experience you know I don't think I would have the relatability to most people I don't think I would understand people the way to do and so I'm just truly grateful to lose my leg for a year lose the function of my leg and to go through those challenges because on the other side of a challenge is a great opportunity to impact yourself impact others and and lead by an example of improving who you are as a person and and not one thing should ever define you as a person so you have many many truths many strengths that you can accomplish and you just got to keep working on all all variables of it so when one door closes another one opens and so be optimistic on your challenges today because tomorrow there's an opportunity waiting for you to change