This past year has been full of ridiculous coincidences and occurances that have led me to as sure of a place that I can be in at this point. For example, while purchasing my first training shotput and discus, which I got for $10, it required driving to Owl Dr in Great Falls. Driving onto an on-ramp, my dad had to stop the car completely because of an owl sitting in the middle of the street.

The man I bought the equipment from, his first name is Judge, which is the last name of the US Paralympic throwing coach from London, who I have had correspondence with. I obtained my own throwing coach, who is in Rhode Island. Upon driving to see him for a weekend, we discover that his daughter's birthday is the same day as mine (April 2nd) and the man at the throwing shop where I bought my discus and shot, the child he just adopted is born on the same day as my dad, who made the trip to Rhode Island with me.

If this didn't convince me that I am doing the right thing, i was taken out to lunch yesterday for my last day at work...how my last day came to be is another story unto itself, but the lunch ended with each of us getting fortune cookies. Here's what mine said:

"Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness."

Last night, in the pitch black, I went out to throw the shotput. It may be the last day I have to do this in the dark, but training is only going to become more intense and all-encompassing now that I am being given, and fuly embracing, an opportunity to not only do what I like, but like what I do.

Again, there are so many more coincidences and signs that I can explain, and I will surely explain them in time...but with my 4,000 character limit, this feels like a nice place to end.

I thank everyone for their support, help and belief in me for as long as you have known me. It's time to pursue my dream to the fullest and do what I can to not only make and leave my mark, but make and leave a mark that will inspire others and spark their own determination to make their own dreams, however impossible others say they may be, come true by taking one step a day and coming that much closer tomorrow.

I know where I'm at now, and by improving one meter at a time, here's watching all my relentless hardwork, and dedication from those around me, carrying me through regional qualifying and, hopefully, all the way to Rio in 2016.

Much love always.

Healthfully,
Greg

I may just about be one of the oldest, not to mention complete opposite gender, of the normal Script fan, but aside from being one of the most amazing bands I have seen, their music does more than just touch you--it inspires you. Danny, Glen and Mark have done so much in inspiring me to pursue my passion, and I'm so lucky to have had an opportunity to thank them for the strength they have reinforced in me. I got to talk with Glen and Danny about a month ago, and they were entirely supportive and happy for the direction my life is going. Danny even told me that I better put Hall of Fame on my training playlist and proceeded to sing it a capella to me. So yes, I'm convinced. As soon as I get my iTunes fixed, it'll be the first song added.

But here's the story for how The Script came to inspire and, maybe not change my life, but make sure that I live it the way it's been intended...and that has been more than enough to inspire me.

Three years ago today, as Danny said with his own words, I became the actual "Man Who Can't Be Moved".

How did this happen, you wonder?

My first long-term girlfriend post-college made me a mix CD one Christmas. Now, she was still in school and, as a going back to school present, I reciprocated her gesture with a mix CD of my own--the first I ever made for a girl.

I had heard The Script on the radio, I think it was Before The Worst, but it might have been The Man Who Can't Be Moved. Regardless, both of these songs make their way onto her CD.

Now, here's where it comes together. When she gave me the CD she made me, instead of giving me track titles, she wrote phrases about how each song relates to us. We went to the movies and dinner for our first date and, naturally I had written "In case anything is to happen, you know where I'll be -- Rosslyn."

It was a whimsical, romantic gesture that I made to make her smile. Make her smile, it more than did. I never saw the breakup coming though.

Now there's a lot more to this story, all of which can be read in my finished memoir that I am looking to publish. Please let me know if you'd like a copy and I'll put you on the list, but the short version of the story is that on what would have been our anniversary, I went back to Rosslyn at 9 AM, texted her a lyric from the song as a reminder, and--from the corner where I first saw her--did not move.

Waiting that day not only taught me about strength, but gave me an entire day to re-evaluate everything that I value in my life. I saw The Script in concert for the first time the following year, and waited for them after the show to tell them thank you for inspiring me and helping me realize what matters in my life.

Go figure, Danny asks if my camera shoots video and, before I know it, we have a video together of him paraphrasing the story I told him of waiting for her to come back to the place where we met and telling everyone that I am the actual "Man Who Can't Be Moved".

After I finished my memoir, I could think of no better way of saying thank you than by giving them a version with that chapter finalized. To top everything off, Glen and Danny both remembered me and sincerely thanked me for the gift that only seemed appropriate to give them.

The Script are some of the most amazing and sincere gentlemen I have had the pleasure of meeting. Yes, I have overcome a lot in my life and have done conceivably extraordinary things before I heard their music, but they have helped progress this determination and drive.

Experiences make you stronger and show you what you truly value. The experiences The Script have given me have revealed so much to me, and now I have the blessing from Danny to train for the 2016 Paralympics in Rio to Hall of Fame. It may just become my theme song, but I do know I can't wait to see them next year and tell them everything that's come true in the past year since I last saw them.

Dedicated to Alex, Alexander, Joey, Dave, Chantry, Frank, anyone else part of creating "I'll Run" and, of course, Brock.

This excerpt of my memoir is inspired by The Cab, particularly their beautiful song Endlessly. Love and thank you to everyone who reads this. I hope that how I've been pushed to run inspires all of you to run and reach for everything that lies just beyond your sight of reality.

Send me any comments on twitter @GWDetermination. Anyone who follows me will receive Ch 1. Determination and love!

The book may soon be part of @adream2believe. Check it out and stay tuned.


I'll Run...Endlessly

There’s a grocery store down the street from the gym that I go to weekly with my parents. While Dad, true to form, is chatting away as he writes his check, I walk down the front of the store feeling the change in my pocket as I pass the gumball machines.

They’re a quarter a piece…I shake my head. Just get it. I drop the quarter in the slot and turn the dial.

The gears clink, the dispensed quarter dings with the click of my prize landing in the slot. It’s always a surprise with these things, you never know what you’re going to get, but this is absolutely what I wanted. It’s perfect. I couldn’t pick one I wanted more.

Digging into my pocket, I pull out my only other quarter just to get one more to have for later. I have just enough time to look at it and see that it’s the perfect pairing to my first piece. Dad’s coming up behind me now, so I push them both into my pocket so he doesn’t tease me like he always loves to do anytime he catches me acting like I’m still in elementary school.

Walking into my bedroom at home, I sit down to turn on my computer. Waiting for it to boot up, I walk to my bookshelf next to my dresser and pick up the almost untouched box Ava gave me for Christmas.

Still laughing aloud at the “Motivational Speakers Make Better Lovers” white boxers that she custom printed for me, picking up the remaining wrapped Nutella wooden spreaders, I pull out the two remaining items and place them next to the mousepad on my desk.

I’ve been so good on my diet since meeting Ava, but she told me I have to eat the Big Hunk bar she got me. I mean, it says low fat in yellow-outlined red text. I guess I can splurge today. Pealing it as cleanly as I can to remove the white nougat-peanut concoction inside, the wrapper remains intact in one piece. I put it back in the Christmas box, protected under the boxers.

Turning around to sit back down, I stare directly at the delicately enclosed Mickey and Minnie mouse glass-ornament illuminating under the light from my blue Crayola crayon lamp.  Picking up the thin jewel case still sitting next to the now half-devoured Big Hunk bar, I open the last, and most precious, object from Ava’s Christmas present to me.

As track 1 begins to play, I remember the first time we watched Aladdin together.  She didn’t even expect it, because she knows how horrible I know I am, but I began singing along with Al as A Whole New World began.  Little did Ava know the frantic text I sent to Mama and the resulting huff and glare directed at me from my sister as I barely shooed them out of the dining room in time before the song began.  I already loved her, but I fell even deeper as we gazed at each other for that entire duet.

“It all started with a little Disney…”  That’s what reads next to the number 1 inside the jewel case.  Ava made me a 17-track mix CD and, instead of giving me track titles, she wrote phrases explaining how each track relates solely to us and what we have.

“3. The song stuck in my head Sunday morning.”  A day after our first date and Ava already couldn’t stop listening to Love Story, yet I was too frazzled trying to decide if I could kiss her at the end of that first date that I didn’t even think about how obvious it was…when she decided that we were going to walk back frozen to Rosslyn to get the metro…when the Court House stop was right outside the Court House Plaza 8 movie theatre.  Yeah…you know exactly how dumb I felt when I made the connection walking up to the movie theatre from Rosslyn.

Leaving dinner after the movie, Ava was shivering the moment we turned to walk down Wilson Blvd, but I did take my glove off and hold her hand to keep her warm on our ¾ mile walk back to Rosslyn.  But when we got there waiting for her train, she kept talking about her dad.  How could I have kissed her when she was talking about her dad?

Track 7 – well, that’s my love’s “happy pessimism”.  I make her happy.  You should see the smile on my face.  Track 4 may be my favorite though.  “…we’re not getting jerseys. Don’t ask.”  I’m still going to make them though, even if she’s out of my league.  After all she did title the CD “Must Have Done Something Right”.

Ava goes back to school next weekend.  We had barely been together for two weeks officially when Ava handed me her list of 43 Things she wants to do with me.  Listening straight through all 17 tracks, I know we’ve barely been together for a month, but there’s no question in my mind about making my first mix CD.  I’m going to replicate it so she has something she can wear out as much as I have.

And I match it down to the last detail.  When she put her “other favorite song, aptly named ‘Run’” to end the CD, I knew that I just had to include one of my favorite new songs “I’ll Run” that I found by complete accident, kind of like how we found each other.  And like Ava, this song is perfect.

I’ve never made a mix CD for a girlfriend before, but with more than 17 phrases to already share with Ava, every minute spent having to edit, to perfect my CD to—no not just to—but for my love convinces me I am doing exactly the right thing.  Giving it to her the day before she’s driving back to JMU for her spring semester, my hands are trembling as she lightly unfolds the tissue paper inside the bag.

And as she moves to put the bag down, as she leans in to kiss me while Bella Notte begins playing over her car speakers, I whisper in her ear to check the bag again…and that it’s not what she thinks, so don’t worry.  That gentle smile breaks across her face as she starts searching again.

She looks at me confused as she pulls out the box.  Leaving my high school ring loose on my bedroom table, I had swapped the original packaging for the once dust-covered black felt box.  Mama told me I’d stop wearing that ring, but it’s okay.  This is worth it.

Opening up the box, her gasped expression followed by that infectious giggle that drives me to text her good morning every day fills her entire car.  Fitting perfectly—you couldn’t ask for a more perfect setting—Ava’s growing smile beams even brighter than the light reflecting off of the band of hearts wrapped endlessly around her ring finger.

I know that it’s cheap, but for the quarter a piece that it cost me, it’s not too bad for a grocery store gumball machine that dispenses plastic rings.

Quite the contrary actually, I know just from looking at Ava that I don’t need to worry—she’s going to wear it.


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