If your life were a book and you were the author, how would you want your story to go?
如果你的人生是一本书，你是书的作者，你会怎么写你的故事？
That's the question that changed my life forever.
这个问题永远改变了我的一生。
Growing up in the hot Last Vegas desert, all I wanted was to be free.
生长在拉斯维加斯的炎热沙漠，我一直向往自由。
I would daydream about traveling the world, living in a place where it snowed,
我做着白日梦，梦想周游世界，住在能看见雪的地方，
and I would picture all of the stories that I would go on to tell.
编我想讲述的所有故事。
At the age of 19, the day after I graduated high school, I moved to a place where it snowed and I became a massage therapist.
19岁那年，在我从高中毕业后，我搬到了能见到雪的地方，我成为一名按摩师。
With this job all I needed were my hands and my massage table by my side and I could go anywhere.
这份工作只需要双手以及身边的按摩桌，而且我可以去任何地方。
For the first time in my life, I felt free, independent and completely in control of my life.
有生以来头一次，我感到自由、独立、对生活充满把握。
That is, until my life took a detour.
直到人生出现了一个转折。
I went home from work early one day with what I thought was the flu,
有一天，我下班比往常要早，以为自己得了流感，
and less than 24 hours later I was in the hospital on life support with less than a two percent chance of living.
不到24小时以后，我就进了医院，生命垂危，只有2%的存活几率。
It wasn't until days later as I lay in a coma that the doctors diagnosed me with bacterial meningitis, a vaccine-preventable blood infection.
之后的几天，我陷入昏迷，医生诊断我得了细菌性脑膜炎，一种疫苗可预防性的血液感染。
Over the course of two and a half months I lost my spleen, my kidneys, the hearing in my left ear and both of my legs below the knee.
在为期两个半月的治疗中，我切除了脾和肾，左耳失聪，膝盖以下截肢。
When my parents wheeled me out of the hospital I felt like I had been pieced back together like a patchwork doll.
当父母把我推出医院时，我感到自己被重新拼凑起来，像一个拼布娃娃。
I thought the worst was over until weeks later when I saw my new legs for the first time.
我以为最惨的事已完结，直到我第一次见到自己的新腿。
The calves were bulky blocks of metal with pipes bolted together for the ankles
小腿是笨重的金属块，脚踝用管子和螺丝固定，
and a yellow rubber foot with a raised rubber line from the toe to the ankle to look like a vein.
外加黄色的橡胶脚，为了使它们看起来像血管，突起的橡胶线从脚趾延伸到脚踝。
I didn't know what to expect, but I wasn't expecting that.
我不知道我想要的结果是什么，但绝不会是这个。
With my mom by my side and tears streaming down our faces, I strapped on these chunky legs and I stood up.
我的妈妈在我身旁，泪水从我俩的脸庞落下，我绑上这双粗重的腿，站起身来。
They were so painful and so confining that all I could think was, how am I ever going to travel the world in these things?
如此剧烈的疼痛和紧绷，让我不得不想，我要怎么戴着这些东西环游世界？
How was I ever going to live the life full of adventure and stories, as I always wanted? And how was I going to snowboard again?
我要怎么继续拥有那个我从小就梦寐以求的、充满冒险和故事的生活？我要怎么再次站上滑雪板？
That day, I went home, I crawled into bed and this is what my life looked like for the next few months:
那天回到家后，我爬上床，这是我之后几个月的生活样貌：
me passed out, escaping from reality, with my legs resting by my side.
浑浑噩噩，逃避现实，双腿就放在一旁。
I was absolutely physically and emotionally broken.
我的身心都已支离破碎。
But I knew that in order to move forward, I had to let go of the old Amy and learn to embrace the new Amy.
但我知道要向前迈进，就得放下以前的艾咪，学习拥抱新的艾咪。
And that is when it dawned on me that I didn't have to be five-foot-five anymore. I could be as tall as I wanted!
那一刻我才发现，我的身高不再是五尺五，我想要多高就可以多高！
Or as short as I wanted, depending on who I was dating.
我也可以想要多矮就多矮，看约会对象是谁再决定。
And if I snowboarded again, my feet aren't going to get cold.
如果我再去滑雪，脚就不会觉得冷了。
And best of all, I thought, I can make my feet the size of all the shoes that are on the sales rack.
最棒的是我想，我可以把自己的脚做成鞋店特价区里的鞋子尺寸。
And I did! So there were benefits here.
我真的这么做了！看来还是有点好处。
It was this moment that I asked myself that life-defining question:
就在这个时刻我自问那个定义人生的问题：
If my life were a book and I were the author, how would I want the story to go?
如果我的人生是一本书，而我是作者，我希望故事怎么发展？
And I began to daydream. I daydreamed like I did as a little girl and I imagined myself walking gracefully,
我开始幻想。像我孩提时那样，想象自己优雅行进，
helping other people through my journey and snowboarding again.
用自己的历程帮助别人，并且再次滑雪。

And I didn't just see myself carving down a mountain of powder, I could actually feel it.
我并不是仅仅看到自己从山上滑下来，我可以真切感受到那个场景。
I could feel the wind against my face and the beat of my racing heart as if it were happening in that very moment.
我可以感觉到吹拂在脸上的风，还有飞快的心跳，就像身历其境一般。
And that is when a new chapter in my life began.
那是我人生开启新篇章的时刻。
Four months later I was back up on a snowboard, although things didn't go quite as expected:
四个月后，我重新站上滑雪板，虽然情况不如想象中美好：
My knees and my ankles wouldn't bend and at one point I traumatized all the skiers on the chair lift when I fell
我的膝盖和脚踝无法弯曲，一度在缆车上的滑雪客心中留下阴影，因为我跌倒的时候，
and my legs, still attached to my snowboard -- went flying down the mountain, and I was on top of the mountain still.
双腿还黏在滑雪板上，整个飞下山岭，身体却还在山上。
I was so shocked, I was just as shocked as everybody else, and I was so discouraged,
我很惊讶，就跟每个人一样惊讶，我好挫折，
but I knew that if I could find the right pair of feet that I would be able to do this again.
但我知道如果能找到对的那双脚，我就能再次滑雪。
And this is when I learned that our borders and our obstacles can only do two things:
就是这个时候，我了解到限制和阻碍只会影响两件事：
one, stop us in our tracks or two, force us to get creative.
第一，终止我们的习惯，第二，强迫我们发挥创意。
I did a year of research, still couldn't figure out what kind of legs to use, couldn't find any resources that could help me.
我研究了一年，至今仍无法找出要用哪一种腿，无法找到任何能帮助我的资源。
So I decided to make a pair myself. My leg maker and I put random parts together and we made a pair of feet that I could snowboard in.
因此我决定自己做一双腿。制腿师和我任意组装零件，最后完成了一双让我能滑雪的脚。
As you can see, rusted bolts, rubber, wood and neon pink duct tape.
你可以看到，生锈的螺丝、橡皮、木头和粉红布胶带。
And yes, I can change my toenail polish.
没错，我还能换不同的指甲油。
It was these legs and the best 21st birthday gift I could ever receive — a new kidney from my dad
这些腿和最棒的21岁生日礼物，也就是爸爸捐给我的一颗肾，
that allowed me to follow my dreams again. I started snowboarding, then I went back to work, then I went back to school.
让我能再次追寻我的梦想。我开始站上雪板滑雪，接着回去工作、回到校园。
Then in 2005 I cofounded a nonprofit organization for youth and young adults with physical disabilities
2005年时我合伙创办非营利组织，帮助有肢体障碍的青少年，
so they could get involved with action sports.
让他们能参与极限运动。
From there, I had the opportunity to go to South Africa,
我在那里得到前往南非的机会，
where I helped to put shoes on thousands of children's feet so they could attend school.
可以去帮助成千上万名孩童，让他们有鞋穿，好去上学。
And just this past February, I won two back-to-back World Cup gold medals
今年二月，我接连赢得两面世界杯金牌，
which made me the highest ranked adaptive female snowboarder in the world.
这让我成为世界顶尖的女子残疾人单板滑雪运动员。
Eleven years ago, when I lost my legs, I had no idea what to expect.
我11年前失去双腿的时候，完全没想到会有这件事。
But if you ask me today, if I would ever want to change my situation, I would have to say no.
但如果你今天问我，是否曾想过要改变处境，我会说不。
Because my legs haven't disabled me, if anything they've enabled me.
因为我的双腿并没有阻碍我，反而赋予我能力。
They've forced me to rely on my imagination and to believe in the possibilities,
我的脚迫使我仰赖想象力，让我相信一切都有希望，
and that's why I believe that our imaginations can be used as tools for breaking through borders,
这就是为什么我相信想象可以成为工具，用来冲破障碍。
because in our minds, we can do anything and we can be anything.
因为在我们心中，我们能做任何事，能成为各种人。
It's believing in those dreams and facing our fears head-on that allows us to live our lives beyond our limits.
相信梦想，直面恐惧，能够让我们的生活超出局限。
And although today is about innovation without borders,
虽然今天的主题是关于创新无界线，
I have to say that in my life, innovation has only been possible because of my borders.
在我的生命里，是我自身的种种局限让不可能变成可能，
I've learned that borders are where the actual ends, but also where the imagination and the story begins.
我知道这些局限才是现实结束，想象产生，故事开始的地方。
So the thought that I would like to challenge you with today is that
所以，今天我想让你们挑战的是，
maybe instead of looking at our challenges and our limitations as something negative or bad,
与其把挑战、局限看做不利或者坏事，
we can begin to look at them as blessings, magnificent gifts that can be used to ignite our imaginations
我们可以把它们看做恩惠，可以点亮想象的神奇礼物，
and help us go further than we ever knew we could go.
能帮助我们走得更远，远到我们从未想过。
It's not about breaking down borders.
这并不是指要打破局限。
It's about pushing off of them and seeing what amazing places they might bring us. Thank you.
而是把局限推得更广，然后看看它们能把我们带到怎样美好的地方。谢谢。