and John Hamilton asked me the question what is the most important thing that
people should know about you my answer was simply that I have a very happy life
thanks so even though there are many obstacles in my life with a lot of them
being created by progeria I don't want people to feel bad for me
I don't think about these obstacles all the time and I'm able to overcome most
of them anyway so I'm here today to share with you my philosophy for a happy
life so for me there are three aspects to this philosophy the first aspect to
my philosophy is that I'm okay with what I ultimately can't do because there's so
much that I can do now people sometimes ask me questions like isn't it hard
living with progeria or what daily challenges are progeria do you face and
I'd like to say that even though I have progeria most of my time is spent
thinking about things that have nothing to do with progeria at all now this
doesn't mean that I ignore the negative aspects of these obstacles when I can't
do something like run a long distance or go on an intense brolic poster you know
I know what I'm missing out on but instead I choose to focus on the
activities that I can do for things that I'm passionate about like scouting or
music or comic books or any of my favorite Boston sports teams yeah so
however sometimes I need to find a different way to do something by making
adjustments and I want to put those things in the and new category I was
able to accomplish my dream of playing snare drum with the marching band as I
believe I can do for all of my dreams so hopefully you can accomplish your
dreams as well with this outlook next aspect to my philosophy is that I
surround myself with people that I want to be with people of high quality I'm
extremely lucky to have an amazing family who have always supported me
throughout my entire life and I'm also really fortunate to have a really close
group of friends at school now we're kind of goofy a lot of us are band geeks
but we really enjoy each other's company and we help each other out when we need
to we see each other for who we are on the inside but even having made a
documentary going on TV a couple times I feel like I'm at my highest point when
I'm with the people that surround me everyday
they provide the real positive influences in my life as I hope that I
can provide positive influence in theirs as well
thank you so the bottom line here is that I hope that you appreciate love
your family love your friends for you guys love your bros and
acknowledge your mentors and your community because they are very real
aspect of everyday life they can make a truly significant positive impact
so the third aspect to the philosophy is keep moving forward here's a quote by a
man you may know in Walt Disney it's one of my favorite quotes I always try to
have something to look forward to something to strive for
to make my life richer doesn't have to be big it could be anything from looking
forward to the next comic book to come out or going on a large family vacation
or hanging out with my friends to go into the next high school football game
however all of these things keep me focused know that there's a bright
future ahead and may get me through some difficult times that I may be having now
this mentality includes staying in a forward-thinking state of mind I try
hard not to waste energy feeling badly for myself because what I do I get stuck
in a paradox where there's no room for any happiness or any other emotion now
it's not that I ignore what I'm feeling badly I kind of accept it I let it in so
I can not acknowledge it and do what I need to do to move past it I've been
thinking this way for many years but I never really had to apply all of these
aspects of my philosophy to the test at one time until last January I was pretty
sick I had a chest cold and I was in the hospital for a few days but and I was
secluded from all the aspects of my life that I felt made me me that kind of gave
me my identity but knowing that I was going to get better and looking forward
to a time that I would feel good again helped me to keep moving forward and
sometimes I had to be brave and it wasn't always easy
sometimes I faltered I had bad days but I realized that being brave isn't
supposed to be easy and for me I feel it's the key way to keep moving forward
so all at all I don't waste energy feeling bad for myself I surround myself
with people that I want to be with and I keep moving forward
so with this philosophy I hope that all of you regardless of your obstacles can
have a very happy life as well oh wait hang on a sec one more piece of advice
never miss a party if you can help it my school's homecoming dance is tomorrow
night and I will be there thank you very much