LIVE QUICKIE BLOG

Life doesn't always stay on the course you've plotted for yourself. This was a lesson I learned early in my life. Born and raised in the small town of Upton in central Massachusetts, I was steering toward a life as an athlete, earning six varsity letters in baseball and basketball in high school. But an injury my senior year meant I had to give up both sports.

Every day is an opportunity to live, love, laugh, and learn. Can you imagine growing up with a disability, confined to a wheelchair and being able to say those same words? Can you really live life to its fullest and make the most of it in that condition? I can and I did. My wheelchair isn't a prison; it's my chariot of freedom.

Creating art is something I can do without anyone's help. In fact, it's one of the very few things I can do by myself. What's important to me is the ability to control at least one thing in my life because of my severe limitations. Everything I do takes immense energy and endurance. Luckily for me, I am very stubborn, and my tenacity keeps me from giving up anything I feel is important.

Our love story began more than 20 years ago in Bromont in the Eastern Townships of Canada. We grew up together in this beautiful resort village. We studied at the same elementary and high schools. Every day we took the same bus to make the route from school to home. Our houses were only about five minutes from one another. And besides that, I was a good friend of Caro's brother Maxime, which allowed me to go to his parents several times a week to do sports activities.

We were sleeping somewhere deep in the northern jungles of Cambodia when I was suddenly awoken by Shawn, who was in a panic. "DUDE there's something out there!" It sounded like some kind of pterodactyl, and it wasn't happy with our presence. It was just out of sight and it wouldn't stop screaming. Out there hidden in dense jungle, in the pitch black of night, was some kind of beast ready to devour us. This wasn't what any of us had in mind when we decided to come to Cambodia.