In 2015 I was injured in a construction accident while working in Lake Tahoe, California that left me paralyzed. While learning to regain my independence and adjust to life in a wheelchair I chose to attend Hope College. Coping with the loss of mobility and identity that I had as an athlete and outdoorsman led me to pursue a career in wealth management and find a new passion in writing. Accepting that life would never be the same again brought me to a place of having little to lose and a lot to try. In a wheelchair, at twenty years old everything was a ‘first’ again and grieving turned into reveling in a second chance to relearn it all often on the back of a friend. Through losing independence and then struggling to regain it I have learned to become grateful for things I wish the most would not have happened and accept that in life beauty and suffering are often sitting alongside one another. Just like me, you’re living a story with beauty and brokenness woven together and maybe the reason you’ve landed on this page is simply so we can share in it!