A few weeks ago Nicole graduated with her Bachelor's degree in Business Administration. It's been a long time coming. It's just one more example of who she is. She has been working towards this for a long time. She's taken years of traditional on-campus and online classes, worked lots of long hard hours and graveyard shifts and taken crappy positions to earn the dollars to get through school, pay the rent, and try to find some time and way to get on a snowboard. She hasn't taken any free rides. She finally found her answer to school through Western Governor's University. If you haven't heard of 'em, you probably will, because I went to her graduation, and they really are doing some extraordinary things. (And my husband is working on a degree from there too.) When the status quo wasn't working, she found another way to do it. That's kind of the story of this school. It's awesome. And it's exactly just like her and snowboarding. When she didn't want to be confined to a sit-ski, she saw snowboarders, and said that's what she wanted to do. But she was told there was absolutely no way an above-the-knee amputee could ever snowboard, that it had never been done. So she set out to do it. And it was hard. She went out every day, all day for an entire week and never got up on the snow once, while everyone smirked and said, "we told you so." And she persisted with all her bruises and tears anyway. And she went to the snowboarding Nationals competition the next year, the first above-the-knee amputee snowboarder to compete and stand on the podium. She makes it work. She finds a way. That's all, whatever it is. (Have you ever seen a beautiful girl that carries duct tape, wrenches, and a power drill in her purse - her prosthesis has an uncanny way of collapsing at key moments) And guess what?
She is already working on her MBA!
Just one more reason why Nicole amazes me.
So, am I still running strong? Well, I just finished 5k101 last night. It was tough. But I stuck with it faithfully for 8 weeks. And in 5 days I will be running my first 5k. Aaaaghhh! I have a number of running goals and plans that I will let out of the bag as the time comes. But for now, let's just get through the first 3 miles. Am I addicted to running yet? I don't even think so. Do I like it yet? Well, I don't loathe it. It definitely has started something for me
I also told you in a previous post that I'm horribly sentimental, and along with that I'm really moved by music. So as I continue along this little journey, I want to share with you some songs that are meaningful to me. I'm not exactly sure what I'll do yet. But I'd like to start with Uncharted, by Sara Bareilles. This song is so perfect for Nicole. It epitomizes her spirit, from the very beginnings of trying to snowboard, her path through school, and especially the fight she has been a part of to get snowboarding into the paralympics. I had someone ask me the other day if Nicole was scared of going out and talking to people or something to that effect, and the basic question I think is that, do things scare her. The answer is yes, absolutely. But she jumps in and faces things that terrify her head on anyway, all the time. Because sometimes she just doesn't have any other choice. It's either she does it or nobody does. So she just does it. The one thing you can always count on though, Nicole will always be smiling! (I hope you enjoy this little music video. Because it not only is a great song that says a lot about her, but it's also kind of funny, and that's just how every minute is that you spend with Nicole.)