ATTITUDE IS ALTITUDE
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Imagine having no arms to stretch in the
morning, to help you scratch that itch, to allow you to wrap your arms around
your loved ones. Imagine having no legs to kick pebbles down the street, to
walk or run, to bicycle or skateboard, or get you from point A to point B. Then
imagine both at once, which is what Nick Vujicic;has faced his whole life. Have
you heard something like this before?
Nick Vujicic was born with no arms and legs -
but he doesn’t let the details stop him. The brave 26-year-old — who is mainly
a torso — plays football and golf, swims and surfs, despite having no limbs.
Nick has a small foot on his left hip which
helps him balance and enables him to kick. He uses his one foot to type, write
with a pen and pick things up between his toes.
‘I call it my chicken drumstick,’ joked Nick,
who was born in Melbourne, Australia, but now lives in Los Angeles. ‘I’d be
lost without it.’
Due to his faith as an Evangelical Christian,
Nick has chosen to remain a virgin until marriage.
‘He’s very modest but he gets marriage proposals
from women all the time,’ said Nick’s friend and publicist Steve Appel, from
Los Angeles.
‘He would love to get married and start a family
but he’s waiting for the right girl to come along.’
Water sports aren’t Nick’s only thing - he also
plays golf with a club
tucked under his chin, and is a huge fan of the
English Premier League.
His parents decided not to send him to a special
school - a decision he said was very hard for him, but which may have been the
best decision they could have made for him.
When Nick was born his father was so shocked
that he left the hospital room to vomit. His distraught mother couldn’t bring
herself to hold him until he was four months old.
His disability came without any medical
explanation - a rare occurrence called Phocomelia - and Nick and his parents
spent many years asking why this cruel trick would happen to them. ‘My mother
was a nurse and she did everything right during pregnancy but she still blamed
herself,’ he said.
‘It was so hard for them but right from the
start they did their best to make me independent.’
‘My dad put me in the water at 18 months and
gave the courage to learn how to swim.’
‘I also got really into football and
skateboarding. I totally love the English Premier League.’
Nick’s father was a computer programmer and
accountant and he taught his little son how to type with his toe at just 6
years old. His mum invented a special plastic device that meant he could hold a
pen and pencil.
Despite the risk of being bullied, his parents
insisted Nick on attending mainstream school. ‘It was the best decision they
could have made for me,’ adds Nick, who later achieved a degree in Financial
Planning and Real Estate. ‘It was very hard but it gave me independence.’
Nick, who was teased and bullied, had an
electric wheelchair for mobility, and a team of carers to help him.
‘I was deeply depressed when I was eight years
old,’ he said. ‘I went to my mum crying and told her I wanted to kill myself.’
‘I felt cold and bitter. I hated God for doing
this to me and was terrified of what would happen when my parents weren’t there
to look after me.’
‘I could brush my own teeth with a wall mounted
brush and wash my own hair with pump action soap, but there was so much that
was impossible for me.’
At age ten Nick tried to drown himself in the
bath but luckily the attempt was unsuccessful. ‘I felt there was no purpose
when you lack purpose and strength. It is hard to hold on,’ he said. But with
the help of his religion, friends and family, Nick managed to pull through to
become an international symbol of triumph over adversity.
‘When I was 13, I read a newspaper article about
a disabled man who had managed to achieve great things and helped others,’ said
Nick.
‘I realised why God had made us like this - to
give hope to others. It was so inspirational to me that I decided to use my
life to encourage other people and give them the courage that the article had
given me.’
‘I decided to be thankful for what I do have,
not get angry about what I don’t.’
‘I looked at myself in the mirror and said: ‘You
know what the world is right that I have no arms or legs, but they’ll never
take away the beauty of my eyes.’ I wanted to concentrate on something good
that I had.’
“The challenges in our lives are there to strengthen
our convictions. They are not there to run us over”, said Nick. In 1990 Nick
won the Australian Young Citizen of the Year award for his bravery and
perseverance.
‘And once I was in a car and a girl at traffic
lights was looking at me interestingly. She could only see my head so I decided
to do a 360 degree spin in the car seat to freak her out. Her face was like
woooooooah what is going on? She sped off really quickly.’
Nick began travelling the world and in 2008 he
went to Hawaii and met surfing master Bethany Hamilton, who had her arm bitten
off by a shark when she was 12.
‘She was amazing,’ said Nick. ‘She taught me how
to surf and I was terrified at first, but once I got up there it felt
absolutely fantastic and I caught some waves pretty well.’ Nick quickly learned
how to do the 360 degree spins on his board - a feat that got him on the cover
of Surfer magazine within 48 hours. ‘No one has ever done that in the history
of surfing,’ he said. ‘But I have a very low centre of gravity so I’ve got pretty
good balance.’
He has visited different countries all over the
world. The football fan is now a motivational speaker and has travelled to over
24 countries speaking to groups of up to 110,000 people.
He moved to Los Angeles two years ago in 2007
and plans to continue to travel the world.
“If I fail, I try again, and again, and again.
If you fail, are you going to try again? The human spirit can handle much worse
than we realize. It matters how you are going to finish. Are you going to
finish strong?” said Nick
‘I tell people to keep on getting up when they
fall and to always love themselves,’ he said.
‘If I can encourage just one person then my job
in this life is done.’
1. Here is a bunch of 50 simple
comprehension questions Click to Download PDF
2. To learn some more people
excelled their lives Click to Download PDF (also
useful for Project Work)
3. Key words or Phrases along with structural words useful to answer the questions for Attitude is Altitude
10th Class English Unit I Different posts:
Read and Reflect: Book
Review: Model Review of a Story
Read and Reflect: Book
Review: Model Review of a Poem
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