Dear Unsealers,

The moment that changed my life happened on a random Thursday in August of 2002. However, when it happened, I didn’t know my life would change.

But I’m getting ahead of myself here…

We have to go back to the summer of 2001.

I had a pair of surgeries on my right leg. This was the third round of surgery on my leg in an attempt to fix a deformity that had been with me since childhood. The most profound complication that having cerebral palsy brought into my life. Seven stitches and three pins in my middle toes. I was bedridden for most of the summer and at a shallow point. But I knew that I couldn’t give up on myself so easily.

Nine months of physical therapy would follow. Twice a week after school, I would travel to the Hospital For Special Surgery on the east side of Manhattan. It wasn’t easy, as my knee stiffened up in the process. In time, I would go from a wheelchair to a walker and a cane before ultimately ending up with a brace on my right leg.

On this particular Thursday, I went to visit with my surgeon. At the end of the appointment, he uttered these words: you can take the brace off.

I looked at him dumbfounded, and a bit terrified. I hadn’t taken a step forward without help in some time. But he wasn’t kidding, I could take the brace off my leg.

As I did, I took the first step forward. A beaming smile came across my face and so did it on the face of my mother. I took a few steps more after that.

All the memories of doctor’s appointments, orthopedics, and surgeries faded away. I could feel my self-esteem starting to come back after a lifetime of feeling terrible about myself with all the other complications.

With perfect timing too, as my senior year of high school was close at hand. I couldn’t wait to show everyone my leg without the brace there.

This was the moment when I was reborn.