I was frightened, excited, and nervous. My first day of kindergarten at my new school, Breck, I walked with my parents down that long and narrow lower school hallway that went all the way to the end of the upper school campus. There were tons of people walking in the hallway and finally with all my emotions scattered everywhere I arrived at my classroom. I crept in the classroom tightly holding my dad's leg and started looking at my classmates from behind his big black pants. They were just playing around with toys and laughing together. The first thing that popped into my mind was "hey these kids seem really nice." Then I started to wonder, would they like me when they found out about my condition?

Let us go back to the beginning. I had two healthy parents and was born on September 27, 1990, except there was a problem when I came out of my mom's belly. Thirty seconds after I was brought into the world, my parents, doctors, and nurses realized that there was something wrong with my feet. On each of my feet I had only three toes and one foot was turned sideways. My parents went into a shock. A billion things were flashing through their heads; ? Why did this happen to my child? Why did God allow this to happen? As parents, what did we do to cause this to happen? And finally what could my child possibly have done to deserve this? These were the exact thoughts both of my parents were thinking as they held me for the first time. Soon they learned from the doctors that I was born with a rare case called bilateral type-three fibular hemimelia on both legs. After countless visits to doctors from all across the U.S., it was recommended that the best solution for me in the long run was either to amputate both of my feet and wear prosthetic devices for the rest of my life or to have countless surgeries every summer to try to make my feet as normal as possible.

My parents didn't know what to do; they wanted my life to be the best that it could be. They had done everything they could to make me the healthiest baby in the world. My mom didn't even drink coffee or pop when I was in her stomach. They also did not take any chances when I was being born. My parents can't even describe what they were feeling when they found out these options for me. They had to take a chance and believe in technology, and they had to have faith in God and in themselves that they would make the right decision. After a year of difficult thinking and emotions, my parents decided to amputate my feet. After the operation I was doing fine. I learned to walk, run, play, and much more with my prosthetics on. Sure it took longer to learn how to walk than for most kids, but after toddling around pushing my dump truck that vacuumed up blocks, I got the hang of it. Four years went by and after two years of preschool, I was ready to start kindergarten.

At five, I was ready for my new school called Breck. I walk into Ms. Zeff's kindergarten classroom with my parents, shy as could be and started looking at my surroundings. I was frightened about going to a new school, excited to learn new things, and very nervous about being accepted. One kid came up to me with a big smile on his face and asked "do you want to play in the sandbox with me?" I was unsure about accepting his offer, but in the end I said "yes." As we played until class started, I learned that his name was Matt Ross. After that I didn't feel as scared and as frightened anymore because I made my first new friend at Breck.

Then Water Day came, where all the kindergarten classes could go to the playground with their swimsuits on and just fool around with a hose. I went into the bathroom to change and realized that I couldn't get my prosthetic legs wet so I would have to take them off.
I wondered "Oh NO, what am I going to do" All of the kids have never seen me with my legs off before. What will they think of me? Will they treat me the same as before?

Then I just stood there behind the bathroom door just thinking about their reactions. But I gathered up enough courage to open that door and show everyone what I looked like. I walked slowly to my classmates with my head hanging low and started looking at their faces. I was surprised. Most of the faces looked excited and astonished and not scared. A few frozen faces did look frightened to see me because they didn't say anything, but I didn't care because everyone else that I could see thought that my legs looked cool. They all gathered around me and started asking me questions, like, "hey, why are your legs like that?" and "hey why are you so short?" So I told everyone my story and I showed them how I can scratch my head with my leg like a dog and how I can run with my legs and my hands at the same time. They all thought it was pretty cool.

When I was seven, I started Tai Kwon Do because I would always watch fighting shows on the TV. At first, I had trouble doing all of the moves that my instructor taught me. I could not balance very well and I could not get power into any of my kicks because I could not bend one of my knees, but with encouragement from my family and friends, I kept participating in Tai Kwon Do. On December 12, 2001, I was the first double-amputee in the country to earn my first-degree black belt. Since then I went on to get my second-degree black belt in 2004 and am still doing Tai Kwon Do to this day.

When I hit eigth grade, yet another physical challenge faced me in project adventure. I had to ascend a variety of climbing obstacles. I did not think I could do it with my legs being how they are, but of course with the backing of my friends and my teachers, I tried. I may not have reached the top of every challenge, but I did the best that I could and that was I all wanted to do. For example on the outdoor Multi-Vine, I had to balance on a small rope and grab other, bigger ropes by my sides, but the number of ropes to hang onto is limited. On a chilly November day, I got just a little over half way through it when I couldn't keep my balance any more because of the wind and my freezing hands, so I had to stop. But that was fine with me.

If it was not for that critical decision my parents made to have that operation, I probably could not have walked, run, or done anything as well as I can do now. Life has been rough for me, but now that I think about it, I am one of the luckiest kids in the world. My condition is not as bad as what many other people in this world face, and God has granted me the opportunity to be uncommon, to see things from a unique perspective, and to tackle life a little differently than everyone else. What I have come to realize is that no matter what cards you get dealt, you should always try to make the best of it. You can't let fear or doubt stop you. I want to thank my parents for making the biggest decision of their lives even though it was painful for them. I want to thank my family and friends for supporting me through everything. I want to thank the class of 2009 because again and again you have been accepting and have never doubted me. And last but not least I want to thank my legs because without them I probably would not have done as great in life as I am doing now.