 No, keep your limbs for the love of God of all that is holy. If you don't need to get rid of them, please hold onto them. Do not romanticize this sort of a lifestyle. Please do not think that it's something it is not. Say hi, people. Hello there, my beautiful internet friends. Welcome back to my channel. Thank you so much for joining me here today. Sophie, my loudly panting co-host, shall be joining us probably for the duration of the video just to make sure that our audio quality is top notch with the panting. Yeah, so there's this particular type of comment that I've been seeing appearing in my comment section more and more lately that I wanted to directly address and hopefully put a stop to. I think that this kind of comment could be coming from a variety of different situations, backgrounds and motivations, but at face value I think it is extraordinarily concerning and I really wish that people would stop saying this. So with that being said, if you like this video, I would love it if you'd give it a thumbs up. I'd love it if you hit subscribe. We are so close to 150,000 subscribers, which is absolutely crazy and I'm so grateful for. So if you would like to join this beautiful internet friend family, hit that subscribe button. I'd appreciate seeing you back here. See this? You see this thing? I talk about it from time to time here on my channel. I'm missing a foot. Oh, this looks trippy, doesn't it? I'm missing a meat foot, meaning that I am a bologna amputee, meaning that one of my feet is missing. And this channel has documented my journey for almost two years now, which is crazy to think about. I became an amputee, had some complications, got things worked out, now I'm pretty functional. I'm able to like go for short hikes, go for walks, get on a bike, do you know little things and I'm continuing to get stronger and working up to more things, which is amazing. But as that has occurred and as people have seen my YouTube videos and my TikTok videos and my channel, I've noticed more and more people saying, I wish I was an amputee, that's so cool. Or even more concerningly, is it weird that I wanna cut up one of my legs so I can have a cool metal leg like you do? Here is an example of one comment I recently received and this was sort of the one that broke this camel's back, if you will, because I feel like there are some misconceptions that might need to be addressed. I wanna say that I completely acknowledge the types of comments like these might be coming from a variety of different motivations and backgrounds. The first thought I had is, are they just trying to make me feel better about being an amputee and be like, oh, I wish I was like you, even though that isn't really the case. The second thought I had, which is a very valid one, is maybe people who write comments like this are dealing with BIID or Body Identity Integrity Disorder, which is a mental illness that makes someone want to remove one of their limbs or have some other kind of disability, which I have a lot of compassion for and I believe needs good treatment. Those two things off the table, for someone to actually watch my videos and go, damn, I wish I was missing a limb so I could have a super cool carbon fiber rocket foot. I would like to take just a moment to dispel that desire. We live in a world that basically has two narratives when it comes to people with disabilities or disabled people. The first one is that they are a burden on society and weird and gross. I've definitely heard that one, but it's not nearly as prevalent in my experience as the romanticizing of disability as the, wow, these people are so courageous and brave and incredible and everyone looks up to them and look at what they're doing, isn't that awesome? I feel like those are really the two narratives. If you watch media, if you watch movies, generally speaking, it's either a tragic tale or an inspiring story of overcoming and sometimes it's both and that's okay. Think to a concerning level, we romanticize having a disability. We think of it as something that's like cool or trendy or quirky or makes you special or makes you different or makes you unique and yes, it does make you different and yes, it does make you unique as many other qualities of human beings do. However, a goal I always had with this channel was to talk about the ups and the downs because what you see in a 10 minute edited video is not the extent of my life and so considering the fact that in movies or TV shows or YouTube videos or TikTok videos, you see an edited segment of someone's life, it's very easy to romanticize something. One of the questions that I'll commonly get when I'm talking about anything athletic is isn't having a prosthetic leg really an advantage? Isn't an advantage when it comes to running or doing different kinds of things and the answer, at least for being a below knee amputee is flat out no. The technology does not currently exist to the public to allow this to be any kind of advantage. The energy return which allows you to do more is significantly less than having a meat foot. You know, meat foot with meat on it, like a normal leg. Living with a prosthetic leg is not easy. It's something that you adjust to, it's something that you adjust into your routine, you incorporate into your routine, you absolutely can find a way to live with but when all we see are little snippets and we look up to people who are dealing with chronic pain, chronic illness or disability and maybe there's a part of us that starts romanticizing that life. Like, you know, maybe it would be pretty cool to have to like fight against a disease in my own body. Maybe it would be pretty cool to be missing a limb and people would ask me about it and I could choose what colors went on it and that's kind of cool, right? That's kind of awesome. But the part that I fear is missed is what is shown not in conversation with someone for five minutes at a coffee shop, not watching a YouTube video for 15 minutes. Living with a disability in my own personal opinion, other people feel differently about this is not something to romanticize, is not something to aspire to. Living with a disability is all about living life in spite of living life with something that isn't the best passenger, isn't the best friend to you. Like my limb not being a part of me is not the ideal situation, it's nothing I would have chosen had I had the option of having a perfectly normal working meat leg but that wasn't on the table for me and so I'm living and growing and adapting and that's great. But that living and growing and adapting with a carbon fiber rocket foot is not something that someone I ever believe should look up to or want to be. Like I said, I've had a sprinkling of these kind of comments before throughout my videos but recently I've had a few videos that started taking off a little bit more than they usually do and so when that happens I get exposed to a larger audience and there's such a variety of responses and I so appreciate anyone who takes the time to watch what I'm putting out there. It's incredible to me but to look at what I'm doing and say that's what I want to be I'd rather chop off a leg than have a good one is so concerning to me and is the polar opposite of the message I would ever hope to promote or hope to put out there. I want to make it really clear this is not anything I would ever have chosen in a perfect world. It's the best choice I got to make in the imperfect world that we live in and I'm grateful for that but what I really want to admonish anyone who's ever seen any of my videos and thought I want to be that I want to be missing a leg is you have no idea what you're signing up for when you live life without a body part that is supposed to be there. Mentally, emotionally and especially physically there are so many challenges and it's so draining and guess what? Life can be challenging enough with all of your body parts, right? Like the hardest parts of my life that I've ever faced were not relating to my amputation they were other things they were mental health related things. I almost wonder that these kinds of comments don't come from this place in society that just shows the great parts of dealing with a disability like amputees running and doing crazy feats for human beings and it's incredible and it's inspiring and it's awesome and oh my God the leap that I think is very dangerous is I want to do that I want to chop off a leg so I can beat the record or so I can do the thing or so I can be like those people in that cool commercial who are also missing limbs no, keep your limbs for the love of God and all that is holy if you don't need to get rid of them please hold on to them they are here for a purpose they are here for a reason this is how bodies are formed and we do such an awesome job of adapting when we're living with limb differences but it's always gonna be adjusting it's always gonna be figuring out a way and while I'm okay with that it also takes a lot of time and a lot of energy there have been times in my life when I was younger that I looked to people who were in very hard situations dealing with very, very difficult things a part of me almost wished for something really difficult to be dealing with so that people could help me and people could look up to me and I would have a reason to fight against something and to feel heroic and to feel inspiring and this is like when I was a teenager growing up and then life happened and I actually started experiencing those very difficult things and they realized oh, this is not anything I ever would have wanted it is what life is I get to deal with that I get to adjust but dealing with hard things is a part of life and you will run into very challenging things for you without asking for them without hacking off a part of your body that deserves to be there still I guess what I'm trying to say at the end of the day is please do not romanticize this sort of a lifestyle please do not think that it's something it is not it is a lifelong challenge that you will constantly be adapting to that you feel every day we are human beings dealing with difficult circumstances and guess what? you're a human being dealing with your own set of challenges too and instead of wishing more upon yourself deal with the challenges in front of you and make the world a better place that is what I am attempting to do that is what I'm sure you are attempting to do please do not hope to become disabled for any reason thank you for listening no ill will towards anyone who's ever said anything like this whatsoever I think it comes from a lot of misconceptions most of the time and that's okay we're all learning, we're all growing but please stop saying this at least in my comment section I would super appreciate it thank you to all of my patrons over on Patreon for being so very kind to financially support this channel it honestly makes this channel possible at this point and I cannot thank you enough for that I really appreciate each and every one of you if you're interested in supporting this channel in that way, check out the link on screen or in the description down below to see what Patreon is all about and what perks it has and how you can see behind the scenes exclusive videos of my adorable oh I thought Sophie was right there is she? nah you can't see her, she's in the puppy bed anyways if you join Patreon I'll get exclusive videos of my pets on behind the scenes and early updates and things of that nature so check it out if you're interested but to you watching this video right now thank you so much so much for spending a few minutes out of your day here with me today you could be anywhere in the world doing absolutely anything and you chose to listen to me chat for a little while and share this conversation with me and I really appreciate it I love you guys, I'm thinking about you and I will see you in the next video bye guys