3 Feet A Day

[Music]

thank you so much that was

quite the introduction i can’t wait to

hear what i have to say

this might look like a

boring odd prop

common yardstick this

means so much more to me

this is a verified measuring device i

don’t use it

to measure a piece of carpet

where to hang a picture on the wall this

is my journey every single day three

feet a day

there’s hundreds of hash marks

on this yardstick and you can attach a

different emotion

to every one of those marks it’s amazing

what we are capable of feeling

as human beings attach some goals

some dreams some plans

all on this three foot guide

20 years ago literally

on this day march 26th

2001. i’m living the dream

working as a things police officer

28 years old solid as a rock

till 11 21 pm that night

just a few miles from here i was on my

way to an emergency call

lights and siren came to a brief stop

at a red light

and i was struck from behind by a taxi

driver suffering an epileptic seizure

doing 115 miles an hour

i didn’t drive through that intersection

i was shot through that intersection

like out of a cannon and it’s easy

to reflect back and say when you hit

from behind it will propel you forward

well i went forward so far so fast

that i didn’t wake up until june

12th two and a half months in a blink of

an eye

woke up to my doctors my friends

my family saying jason

you’re burned over 40 percent of your

body

fourth degree burns from the neck up

something i’ve never heard

down the last layers of muscle into the

bone

you’ve lost half your fingers you’re

completely blind

your muscles have atrophied so much

laying here you’ve lost 61 pounds

and the bad news kept coming you’re

never going to return to work

you’re never going to play golf again a

game that i loved so much i was a two

handicap

at the time

those were

verifiable truths at the time but they

were only temporary

it took me a lot of days and nights

a lot of time alone with myself

and asking questions to put everything

together

but then i realized

that if i chose to have accountability

for where i was for the most part we are

all exactly

where we’ve chosen to be i chose to be a

police officer

i chose to answer for a call

out of my patrol zone i chose my route

of travel

that took me back many years i gave up a

golf scholarship to college

to join the military chose to only spend

my four years and move on

it was not a random

tragic moment in time all of those

choices i had made over all those years

that’s what led me to that intersection

to that fire into that hospital bed

and 20 years later

onto this stage

verification simply means acceptance

and when i accepted where i was what my

fate

at the time was i was able to start

building the positive attitude

positive momentum and the beautiful

thing about that is it’s an unstoppable

force once it gets going you just got to

get out of the way

every time i went to therapy and came

home got a little bit stronger

every surgery i had got a little bit

better

now as you can imagine i did not have

a lot of things to smile about certainly

didn’t have anything to laugh about

and the old cliche that laughter is the

best medicine

is very very true well i found

my sense of humor in a very odd place

in january of

2002 i was invited to participate in the

olympic

torch run as it passed through phoenix

on its way to salt lake

city and i get down there and this young

girl comes up and she says australia we

have a wheelchair for you

we’ve got a guy who’s going to carry the

torch for you

400 yards and i said you know i don’t

know how it’s going to go this is a

once-in-a-lifetime

opportunity so i’d really like to carry

the torch and at least walk down the

street

and as sweet as she could she looked at

me and she said okay

when you’re carrying the torch make sure

you don’t get the flame too close to

your face

and i said no

[Applause]

i am the one guy who does not need those

instructions

and i walked back over to my friends and

i said you are not going to believe what

this girl just said to me

and we were doubled over in the middle

of the street

laughing as hard as we could and i have

not stopped laughing since

all right thank you

when i first got out from the hospital i

had a lot to deal with my three-year-old

son at the time

he would cry and run out of any room i

was in he would openly say

you’re not my dad

i don’t know what rock bottom means to

all of you

but that was mine

and i was determined

to embrace gratitude i was no longer

consumed by fire

gratitude and in that gratitude

i will go back to work i will play golf

again

and i will be my children’s dad

but on 18 months later to have my third

child

two weeks after that got into a truck by

myself

drove back to work public information

officer

homicide detective for the city of

phoenix eventually retiring

five and a half years after the accident

life truly is 10 of what happens to us

and 90

how we react to it and there’s so few

things

that we are in control of but we’re in

control of our attitude

at all times every person you deal with

every situation you face

you get to choose how you’re going to

respond

and you’re not always going to win those

battles it is okay

to not be okay a lot of times people

hear the word vulnerability

and they think it means weakness it

doesn’t

it means strength and beauty

i did go back to work i did learn how to

play golf again

and i worked hard at it i got my

handicap back down to a one

i could play golf better after the

accident than i could before

that three-year-old boy is now a 22 year

old successful young man who is very

proud

to call me dad

thank you

i love irony and i wish i had time to

tell you all the

amazing ironies that have happened along

my journey

but the one that really sticks out is

ever since i was a child when i would

see

a picture or graphic of a phoenix it

always meant one thing

and i was born and raised here and then

i grew up to be a phoenix police officer

and then i actually did

rise from the fire but what the

phoenix signifies is our human spirit

and the human spirit you can’t touch it

taste it see it it is the most powerful

entity in the world and it doesn’t

matter

your age your race your religion how

much money you have in the bank

we are all created equal

and our human spirit is designed for one

thing

is to take you away from risk and stray

toward reward

you just have to choose to let it soar

i learned a lot of things

along this journey constantly inside

of these hash marks whether it was

excitement enthusiasm success

all the way down to the tears and the

anger and the anxiety

and the hopelessness i embraced all of

it

and i figured out something that means

so much to me that i chose

to have it permanently etched into my

skin

and that is sometimes the most beautiful

inspirational changes will disguise

themselves

as utter devastation be patient

how will you choose to go three feet

every day thank you all

thank you