Transcriber: kylee silva Reviewer: Maria Pericleous
Life is a journey of evolution and transformation.
Everything is meant to change;
our bodies, our friends, our relationships.
But it wasn’t supposed to be like that for me.
From the moment I was born,
my life was handed out to me,
and I was told that my path was already known.
Doctors dictated what my life would be like growing up,
and let me tell you,
there was not much room for movement or progress in their narrative.
To most people, the unknown sounds scary and risky,
but to me the scariest thing is what I already knew.
At four months old, I was diagnosed with cerebral palsy tetraplegia
and five different doctors told my parents
that I would never move my arms, legs or live an independent life.
As you can imagine, my relationship with fear started early.
Specifically, the fear that I would never be enough,
or never do enough.
Fear is a very powerful force,
but I had to let it push me forward instead of holding me back.
Luckily for me, I had two amazing parents
that were determined to help me create a life that I love living.
At nine months old, I started doing intense physical therapy every single day,
and even my mom learned how to massage me,
so that after doing PT all day,
she would keep working on me while I was asleep.
And that’s how our family journey of turning fear into faith began.
After six years of working hard,
I was finally able to take my first independent steps.
And when that happened,
the first place I wanted to go was the fridge.
(Laughter)
But I’m not talking about any fridge, I’m talking about THE fridge.
I was with my family at the zoo,
and they wanted to go and see a show that I had already seen.
So I decided that I was going to wait outside.
Not too far from me, still within the zoo,
there was a store with an ice cream fridge in it.
At this point,
it was extremely difficult for me to walk, without the help of another person
or a walker.
But as you guys might have realized, fridges have a special place in my heart.
So I decided I was going to go for it anyway.
I looked at the store
and started planning how I was going to get there.
First I thought I could lean onto this tree, and then the next tree.
After that, I could crawl all the way up to a bench,
use the bench to get up,
and the bench would eventually lead me to a wall
that would get me to the store.
And I did it!
My plan actually worked!
I got to the fridge.
I was so excited,
that when I put my hand in to get the ice cream I wanted,
I fell in head first,
with my feet just dangling in the air.
I decided I wasn't going to panic.
I thought to myself,
it’s a pair of legs sticking out from a fridge.
I’m sure that someone is going to notice.
(Laughter)
Sure enough, someone did.
This man came and got me, and when he put me down,
I realized that it was a police officer.
So I thought that was kind of strange.
Then I looked outside of the store window
and saw absolute chaos.
There was men in orange and yellow vests running around, talking on walkie talkies.
There was even a police car.
I saw my mom’s face in the crowd,
red, with tears in her eyes, and it all clicked.
This was happening because of me.
You see, when my mom came back out and she saw that I wasn't there,
she assumed the worst case scenario, that I’d been kidnapped.
So she told the zoo management what was going on,
and they said, “Relax, we’ll find him,
he’s probably wandering around here somewhere.”
But then she explained, “You don’t understand,
my son can’t wander around,
he has C.P., he can’t even walk on his own.”
So then everybody panicked,
and everybody started looking for me.
When she saw me, she ran up to me and she hugged me really tight.
But her face quickly changed from happy to confused.
She looked at me and said,
“How did you get all the way over here with no help?”
I just kept eating my ice cream,
because I felt like it was still the most important thing going on,
and I said, “I found my own way.”
This was a turning point for me,
because I realized
that even though I can’t do things like everybody else,
it doesn’t mean I can’t do them.
It’s important to have a purpose in life,
because our purpose allows us to find creative ways of how to do things.
By my early teens, I had surpassed every expectation.
I was running, biking and doing martial arts.
But because I was growing taller,
and my muscles were simply too tight,
I went through a phase of constant injuries and muscle spasms.
There was one muscle spasm that changed my life forever.
I was playing basketball, one morning just like any other,
and I felt a pinch in my leg.
At the time, I didn’t know what it was, so I just kept going.
But as the day went on, the pain got worse and worse and worse.
By the end of the day, I couldn’t get up to take a single step,
and my mom
had to get on the school bus to physically carry me off.
The doctor said that I should give it some rest, so I did.
After about a week, I felt better.
But as soon as I started walking again, the same thing happened, muscle spasm.
So this whole cycle of getting a muscle spasm,
resting and repeating,
all repeated itself,
until I got to the point that I simply couldn’t take it anymore.
I hit a wall.
We went to the doctor
and the doctor said, “Look,
it’s clear that Angelo’s body
can’t handle the stress of walking anymore.
So in order for him to continue his life, he has to use a wheelchair.”
He then went on to tell my parents
that I should get used to life in the wheelchair,
because the chances of me getting up again were next to none.
I was devastated,
because I felt like all of the hard work that I had done over the years
was simply erased in the blink of an eye.
But as time went on, I slowly realized
that I couldn’t be angry and sad forever,
even though I had to let go, and not do the sports that I loved.
I had to respect my body’s boundaries.
I had to find a new hobby.
And that's when I discovered the drums.
When I discovered the drums everything changed,
because it allowed me to shift my perspective,
from “This is so unfair”
and “this is the worst thing that has ever happened to me”,
to “I am actually so grateful,
because everything has led me here, to this moment.”
Eventually I was able to regain my strength,
and became stronger than I ever thought I could be.
A few years later, the time came to go to college,
and pursue a career.
I could have made a fear-based decision
and chosen something safe.
But I didn’t.
I made a decision that was based on passion and faith.
So in 2014, I pursued my dream of becoming a professional drummer
and attended Los Angeles College of Music.
(Applause)
When I went there,
I quickly realized that I had a lot of work to do,
if I was ever going to catch up to the level that was around me.
During my first weeks I was playing in a class,
and I was fully aware of the fact that I wasn’t playing well,
but I was trying my absolute best.
My teacher decided to stop me mid-song,
so he stopped me, and he sat back in his chair.
He kind of pointed at my legs and went,
“What’s the deal with your whole situation?
Because if that doesn’t change,
you shouldn’t be a drummer.”
I was shocked.
I was immediately filled with thoughts of worry and doubt.
I thought, “What if he’s right?
What if I don’t have what it takes,
but, even worse, what if I can never become good enough?”
So I considered quitting.
But my passion for drums simply wouldn’t let me.
About three days later,
I made a fully conscious decision,
that I was going to go down this path, no matter what.
So instead of using his words and letting them tie me down,
I decided to use them to push forward.
And along the journey,
I realized that it’s not about proving others wrong,
but it's about proving yourself right.
Guys, I hope that what I’ve said today
doesn’t make me seem fearless.
Because, trust me, I am far from that.
My mom said that when I was born,
I had to spend two months in an incubator,
and my parents called the hospital every single day,
to check if I was still alive.
She says that I fought to be here.
She says that I chose to be here.
And while I can’t tell you for sure if that’s actually true,
what I can say is that I'm here today.
And today I choose to live a life
where my passion is my purpose,
my perspective is my peace.
And I move through faith, not fear.
That is why I can persevere.
Thank you.
(Applause)
(Music) (Plays the drums)
(Music ends)
(Applause)