Courtesy Brett Botelho
FRISCO — There is an amazing way how the stories of certain athlete’s life-changing moments of standing up to fear and getting the best of it can put crucial elements of our own lives into proper perspective.
On Saturday, Brett Botelho’s perspective on the most jarring moment of his life crystalized to me why it’s so important to confront our own uncomfortable realities in order to move forward. When you do, as Brett’s story attests to, you can then open up unexpected opportunities in the life you created for yourself.
In a recreation and outdoors-loving sports community like Summit County, each of us, more often than not, rise up to attack each day’s challenges. But — though there truly are some sporting supermen and superwomen here in Summit — none of us are perfect. There are the tasks we never quite put at the top of the day’s priorities. There is the conversation we envision for another day and situation. There are the realities we carry with us like a shadow that we don’t acknowledge.
Some of these unresolved tasks and moments of opportunity in our lives are more consequential than others. In all cases, however, letting them fester can result in burden.
Saturday afternoon during a reading of his book “Standing My Own Ground” at Next Page Books and Nosh in Frisco, Brett described how he overcame his life’s many burdens.
Brett said starting at the age of 7-and-a-half he’s faced one physical challenge after another, some created via a difficult domino effect. First, Brett was put in a body cast for three months after surgery to help a situation where his right hip wasn’t receiving enough of a blood supply. As a young boy, a full-body cast for three months in the Southern California heat is quite the burden to wake up to every day.
But, he came out of it strong. About a year later, Brett learned he had an auto-immune disorder that resulted in his body’s immune system attacking his nervous system. The disorder, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, altered Brett’s life forever, paralyzing him for two years from the neck down.
But one day at a time and — quite literally — one step at a time, Brett recovered to the point of not only being able to walk again, but to take up his life’s calling: snowboarding.
Courtesy Brett Botelho
As Brett grew older, he continued to have chronic physical conditions, namely affecting his feet. After several surgeries, as Brett’s childhood evolved into his adulthood, he faced his life’s burden: whether or not to amputate his left leg below the knee to live a better, more comfortable life.
Looking back now, Brett wishes he’d had the surgery years earlier. But at the time, even after the surgery was a success, Brett was reluctant to acknowledge his new life. After surgery, the deal he made with the doctors and those around him was that he’d cover up his leg until he was ready to see it.
Like so many elements in life, the course of reality had other plans. While transitioning from the hospital to transport home, the pillow and blankets covering Brett’s leg fell and he suddenly saw what his leg was now like.
Courtesy Brett Botelho
“I cried out,” Botelho said during the Saturday’s reading, ‘What the f*** did I just do?’ The next words out of my dad’s mouth were said perfectly and at the right time, ‘You made this right decision, your life is going to be better. There is no looking back now.’
“Nothing more needed to be said,” Brett continued, “It hit me, and it hit me hard. My dad was never too hard on me and when certain things needed to be said, they were. That’s what I had to tell myself that day and every day for the rest of my life. ‘This was my chance, and it was up to me to make a difference in my life.’”
Brett certainly has done that since. He realized his dream of moving to Summit County to train with Adaptive Action Sports at Copper Mountain Resort. Last spring, he competed in his first para-snowboarding competitions of his life, earning a pair of silver medals in the lower-limb 2 division at USASA Nationals. In three years he hopes to represent the United States competing in banked slalom at the 2022 Paralympic Winter Games in Beijing, China.
Courtesy Brett Botelho
He believes he will be there thanks to his dedication and belief in himself. It’s that belief that put in him in the situation where, working with Adaptive Action Sports, he would be ready if and when advancements in technology could aid his snowboarding. That happened recently when Brett acquired the Versafoot 2, a state-of-the-art prosthetic developed by U.S. para-snowboarding legend Mike Schultz.
“I haven’t had an ankle for 20 years,” Brett said. “And when I stepped on that I was literally blown away.”
With the new prosthetic, Brett says he’s snowboarding better and more confident than he ever has in his life. It’d never happened if he hadn’t confronted his life’s burden and, as he said, “owned” the potential opportunities of life without a portion of his left leg. Yes, that decision, and ones like it, are frightening propositions. But, when interacting with young para athletes, that’s the message Brett shares with them. To “own” each moment of life. Even one as tough as that one.
The most important quote to Brett’s life echoes that spirit of his. It’s from legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden. “Don’t let what you can’t do limit what you can.” It’s tattooed over his heart.
That’s the main thing we all should think of when deciding each day whether or not to do something.