Josh Sundquist Shares His Message of 1MT1MT
Bestselling author, motivational speaker, and Paralympic ski racer Josh Sundquist spoke to the Sewickley Academy community Wednesday afternoon about overcoming life’s obstacles and challenges.
When Josh was 9-years-old, he was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer and given a 50 percent chance to live. He spent a year on chemotherapy treatments and ultimately had his left leg amputated. He told the captivated crowd in vivid detail about the last walk he took on two legs, down the hall in a hospital towards the operating room.
Doctors declared Josh cured of the disease at age 13, and he took up ski racing three years later. After six years of training, Josh was named to the 2006 U.S. Paralympic Ski Team for the 2006 Paralympics in Torino, Italy. He reflected on the opening ceremonies and the crowd of 30,000. “It was the most beautiful walk of my life,” he said. “And the most beautiful walk of my life happened because of the most tragic walk of my life 12 years earlier.”
Josh spoke to Grades 4-6 students about the process of achieving goals, using ski racing as an example, through four hashtags. He described the first, #omg, as the moment when you are so excited about your goal that nothing will get in your way. The second, #fail, is the inevitable time when you will fall and fail. The third, #perseverance, is when you decide to quit or get back up until you achieve success, and finally, #win.
“My goal was to cross the finish line in my first race,” Josh told the audience. “Everyone else finished the race in about 30 seconds; it took me two minutes and 30 seconds, but I finished.”
As a member of the U.S. Paralympic ski team, Josh raced for six seasons. He fell on his face five times in his first race, and his best finish was second to last in his first eight international races. To keep himself motivated, he came up with a personal motto that he wrote on his skis: 1MT1MT. It means one more thing, one more time. He uses this philosophy to help him get through anything he is trying to accomplish.
“You need to have the courage to stand, and the strength to walk and take a step. Then another and another.”
Josh shared with students that his childhood dream was to make the travel soccer team. His parents signed him up, but instead of going to try-outs, Josh was getting a biopsy done on his leg. He woke up to his dad telling him he had cancer, shattering his soccer career before it even started.
Decades later, Josh would fulfill his dream of joining a travel soccer team. As a member of the U.S. National Amputee Soccer Team, he traveled to Mexico to represent his country in the 2014 Amputee World Cup.
“Sometimes you pursue a goal and it doesn’t work out like you want it to,” Josh said. “But then it turned out I got to play soccer on a team I never would have with two legs. I travel to other countries instead of other counties. And instead of a green or red uniform, I wear a red, white, and blue uniform that says USA on it. Sometimes the uniform you get in life is better than the one you thought you wanted.”
A Lower School student asked Josh if he still has to buy a pair of shoes, since he only needs the left shoe. Josh answered “Yes” and said he found his “sole mate” in D.C. “I met a guy online from my YouTube videos. He is missing his right leg, and I am missing my left. It’s really amazing because we are the exact same shoe size and like the same style of shoes,” Josh explained. “Whenever one of us buys a new pair of shoes, we hold onto the one we don’t use, and meet up every couple of months to do a shoe swap.”
Full of personality and humor, Josh kept students engaged and had them laughing throughout his presentation. The Senior School got a special treat – Josh closed the afternoon with an impromptu performance of his own version of “Free Falling” on his ukulele.
For more pictures from Josh’s appearance, visit our Facebook page.
Supported in part by the Geller Family Educational Speakers Fund.
Supported in part by the Geller Family Educational Speakers Fund.
