From Air Force Veteran, Cancer Survivor To Amputee Advocate: Jon Youngblood’s Inspiring Story (Motivational Speech)

In this episode, Reginald D sits down with Jon Youngblood.  A retired United States Air Force veteran, a cancer survivor and a passionate advocate for veterans, disabled veterans and disabled individuals. Jon's journey is nothing short of inspiring, filled with resilience, determination, and an unwavering spirit.

Acceptance is a crucial aspect of moving forward in life, especially when facing challenges or disabilities. Jon's inspiring story exemplifies the power of acceptance in overcoming adversity. Despite losing his leg due to cancer, Jon's unwavering acceptance of his situation allowed him to continue pursuing his dreams and passions.

Jon shares his heartfelt story of acceptance, resilience and determination with those that have faced or are facing cancer or an amputation and has become a beacon of light to helping others overcome their adversity.

Don't miss this inspiring story.

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Transcript

Welcome to Real Talk with Reginald D. I'm your host, Reggie LaDee. On today's episode, I have Jon Youngblood. John is a retired veteran from the United States Air Force. He's an advocate for veterans and disabled veterans. He was also a part of Relay for Life while in California. Welcome to the show, John. How you doing, Reg? Doing great, doing great. Thank you so much for taking time out of your schedule to sit down and hang out with me for a minute.

That's my pleasure. It'd be my pleasure.

So Jon, tell us a little bit about yourself growing up and things like that.

Oh, well, well, that came from growing up, large family, seven brothers, two sisters, and used to hear about my dad being in the military. And it's kind of like airplanes, military, as I'm growing up and trying to figure out what I'm doing. And I got to that age where I had to make a decision. And I chose to go in the Air Force. And that turned out to be one of the best decisions I've ever made, because it's kind of like it's what my dad did. when he was in the Korean War, but then it's what my mom said to do because she said, you know, you're going to a young age, which I did at 18 and a half. And then she said, you retire at 38 and a half, and then you can do something else with your life. And that's kind of what I did. But see, the highlight of my career wasn't the fact that I followed my mom's advice and my dad's footsteps. was I got a chance to serve at least two years with my youngest brother. He was in the Air Force, too. So we served at the same base for a couple of years before we went our separate ways again. So that was pretty cool. And then I retired with 20 years in, in 94, very young age, of course. And then I stayed on at Vanderburg for a while, where I was at when I retired in California. And I went into missile systems, where we launched rockets into space, where we cleaned systems, we worked on stuff like that. And then that job phased out, and I found myself going back to school. Now I'm going back to school at 47. You know, that's kind of old to go back to school. But something stuck with me with the counselor. The veteran counselor told me, he said, you know, to make an impression, you have to take schooling as if it's as serious as if you took your military career. So every day for a year, When I went to class, I went to school for, you know, information technology specialist. I wore a suit and tie every day, suit and tie, five days a week, going to school at night, working in a day, worked in a day at the VA in Bakersfield. I worked there in a day, went to school at night. I did that for a year. I graduated from there. And then I ended up looking for a job and ended up with a job, which would ended up being my dream job, but also would be a pivotal point in my life. and I was an IT specialist at Yosemite National Park, where I worked for 17 years, and I retired after 17 years. So what happened was, while I was there, 12 years in, I had already been working for Relay for Life at that time, because I had already been a one-time cancer survivor. So I had already been working with Relay for Life in California. But then, on November 11, I got diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer in my right leg. you know, was a make or break moment, because as I was going through the changes of realizing that what this is going to do to me, I had to figure out what I wanted to do. And then somebody that I talked to, you have to talk to somebody that's been there, said to me, Jon, you have to find something that keeps you with your feet on the ground, because what's going to happen to you is going to totally change your outlook on life. It's going to change how you look at things, how you accept things, how you perceive things. And all said and done, it turned out that the doctor said that I would have to lose my right leg, of course, which was amputation, which means I would have to be an amputee. So now I'm here to tell you. The scariest thing is when you hear that, not waking up, that happened in an accident. There's two different traumas you can look at. You can look at the trauma that happened when you wake up in the middle of an accident and you realize you don't have a limb, or that you're in pending future. So for a while after I was told that, I went through everything I had to go through like I was told to do. And for a while, this commercial would show up on TV every night. But see, you got to accept it. If you can't accept it, you won't move forward. Acceptance is the biggest part of anything in life. If you don't accept it, you know, you're just going to just be like everybody else. Sit in the corner, feel sorry for yourself. Say, woe is me. And then you just threw your life away. Every night, five, seven, six times, a commercial would come on. And it would be a commercial that showed disabled veterans in a disabled veteran home. And it showed all different types of reputations. I turned that commercial off. Boom. Because remember what I said? Acceptance. I had not accepted the fact that that's going to be me when it happens. And then as we're talking, my doctors are telling me these things. I started talking to this co-worker in another park. She was going through the same thing I'm going. She has since passed away because she chose a holistic approach to try to beat her cancer. It didn't work, but she eventually passed away, but she gave me a lot of advice. And one thing she said is she said, John, hang on to who you are, because when you lose a limb, that's not what you expect you're going to be. That's not what you figured your future would be, but you got to hang on to what's inside of you and who you are. So the next night I go home, the commercial comes on, what do you think I do? I watch that commercial all the way through. And every time it came on, I would stop what I'm doing and I watch that commercial. I would watch it every time. I don't care if I was doing this or doing, I'd stop and watch it. Because right then and there, I accepted what's going to happen and I accepted what I needed to do. And one thing I needed to do was stay who I am. So my surgery was in, I go after chemo and funny story here, you're going to laugh at this one. You know, I go to chemo, I talk to my doctor, this is February, 2012, February, 2012. I've been through chemo twice. Chemo will kill you. I will tell you right now, it will kill you. Chemo is the day to kill the cancer, kill everything. And the doctor tells me, he says, John, guess what? We wanted to do two chemos, one radiation, you know, two more chemos, but right now, nothing's happening to the tumor in your leg. We gotta make a decision. And now, mind you, at UCSF San Francisco, it's not just my doctor, there's a team of doctors I have around me, team of five or six doctors. And I asked him, I said, well, what typically usually happens? He says, well, typically the patient, the patient will wait till the very last minute to, decide if they want to lose a leg or not. Wait till the last minute. Sometimes it's too late. And then, you know, they cut the leg, cancer gets all through their body. But most times they leave it to me. Very rarely does a patient say, let's go, doc. Let's get it done. Let's roll forward. Let's move. And I told the doctor, I says, Dr. O'Donnell, well, in this case, it's going to be rare because I'm saying, let's get it done. And I said, I mean, let's lock the leg, do what we got to do. Because you know, my friend got tickets to SeaWorld in September, and I plan on walking to SeaWorld when I get there, you know? And this is March. I plan on walking in September. I plan on walking through SeaWorld. So let's get it done. And he said, well, when you want it done? I said, as soon as we can. So he looks over to his MA and MAs. Says, well, you can April? I said, April's fine. OK, April. The MA says, well, we got 13, 14, and 15. I said, whoa. Dr. O'Donnell looks at me and says, what do you mean, whoa? I said, let's do April 15. Now, mind you, I've got the attention of everybody in the room now, because I'm enthusiastically going April 15th. The doctor says, well, why April 15th? I said, doc, I'm going to tell you something. My whole life, I'm like everybody else in this world, me paying arm and a leg in taxes on April 15th, tax day. So I guess this year, I'm going to pay a leg, you know? So there we go. Let's take it off April 15th. I paid my taxes for that year. I paid a leg. I tell you right now, Reg, Hey, you could hear a pin drop with all them doctors in there. They did not catch the humor in it until I said, it's okay, relax. I've already seen my, I've already projected myself. I'm already walking. I'm past the surgery. I've seen past the surgery. I want to walk. You know, I want to function and I've already seen that. And then, uh, I had my surgery and then, and I'm not going to lie to you. It was, it was, it was strange when the nurse walked in and says, okay, Mr. Youngblood, you have a left button and a right button, and I didn't know the difference between nerve pain and physical pain. And she said, you feel any pain, just press buttons. I'm sitting there pressing buttons like I'm on a keyboard, you know? I didn't know what I was doing. So, but yeah, it was a different rehab, a different thing. And then I went home, actually, and this is where the advice comes in that says, stay who you are, right? Don't lose that inner person. So I had already had over three years of leave share donated to me in a park service, over three years. So you know what that meant? I didn't have to go to work for three years, and I could have stayed home. Go to the doctor's appointment and stayed home. So I got released on a Friday. And what do you think I was doing Monday morning? What do you think I did Monday morning?

I was trying to go to work.

Exactly. I was able to work from home on my computer. I went right back to work, less than three days. And my boss says, are you sure you want to work? I says, you know what? I need to work. I'm not going to sit home and do nothing in this wheelchair. I need to work. He said, OK. I donated 85% of that lead back. I gave it all back. Because that's how many appointments I went to. I only went to doctor's appointments when I ran out, and things like that. And that's where I was at that. And again, I got my leg. I can go fast forward. April, lost my leg. May was Relay for Life. Another point where you see these things along your road to recovery that tells you you're doing the right thing in the right way. So Relay for Life, they knew I was going through my surgery, and they said, Sean, we don't expect you to see you there. We don't expect you there. That's fine. We understand. We know you come out every year, but we understand if you're not there this year. I said, no, you don't understand. I'm going to walk the survival lap. And I don't care how I do it. So I had my own team there. It was called Eye of the Tiger. That's the name of my team, a one-person team. So I get out there, and my best friend Carlos from California was with me, big guy. And I said, Carlos, this is what I need you to do. I need you to stand in back of me when I walk. He says, how are you going to walk? You got one leg. I said, I'm going to walk with Walker. He says, that's a half-mile track. I said, Carlos, you don't understand. I'm going to walk on my lap. I promised him I'd walk on my lap. But they said they didn't expect you. Well, I'm going to be there. I get there, and I start walking the lap. There's maybe three, four, 500 people there. I don't know. The place was packed. And I start walking. I'm walking one at a time. And you know, in a walker, where two legs is slow, but one leg is even slower. And I'm walking, and I'm wondering where the people are at. I can't see any people no more. I don't care. I'm focused, and I'm walking. And I get halfway around the track, and I look to the other side, everybody's in back of me, Reg. Everybody is in back of me. Nobody will go in front of me. They're all walking to pace with me. So I get to the end, and he says, OK, you end. No, no, I have to pick up my paperclip. So I get to where I started. Get my paperclip. I walk my lap. And I had everybody just cheering me on and everything else. And like I said, that decision Another one, every time you make a decision that you are good with, you don't need somebody to tell you you made that decision, but it reinforces it every now and when somebody gives those accolades to you when you do it. So I did that there, and then like I said, Relay for Life, and then I worked another five years with my leg gone. I worked another five years as an amputee with my prosthetic, And I worked just as hard as I do when I had two good legs, believe it or not. Carrying 20 pound computers up and down stairs, equipment underneath desks. Of course, the funny thing about getting underneath desks when I had to work on the computer, I had to take my leg off because it would be kind of awkward to move around. But I did my job. And I retired from federal government with 17 years. And that's how I ended up here. And then my model airplane flying came up later on. That came up soon. Somebody asked me a question, and I'm going to share this. And it seems stupid. Because when you go to church, you don't think this way. I go into an office with a couple of coworkers, and this sticks in my head every time. And one of them who goes to church a lot, both of them did, she says to me, she says, Jon, do you think God's punishing you? And I was taken back because that's a question where it's really kind of deep, and you really can't snap an answer. And I said to her, I said, no, I think he's just telling me to slow my roll and he's got a different direction for my life. And I do believe that's what I got. I have a different direction.

That's an amazing story so far. I mean, the part about you nailed it on the head that when you realize what you're about to face and you accept it at the end of the day, then you can move forward, like you said. But a lot of people still don't accept things and they can't never move forward in life. But it was a time where out of everything you went through, you still stay motivated.

Yeah, because that's how I've been. And I kept asking myself, what are you going to do? What are you going to do? How are you going to be? And then when that friend of mine who passed away says, just hang on to what's important to you and just be yourself at the end. It's going to be difficult. It's not going to be easy. You're going to fall a bunch of times. You're going to pull rocks out of your hands. You're going to have people staring at you like you're some freak of nature. You're going to have people nodding their head when they see a hat. They're going to be congratulating you. And the most important thing that will happen is when it happened in California with Relay for Life and still happens now, well, happens with Relay for Life, is that people knew me in town because I was the very first on-the-air radio disc jockey in California. That radio station, that small town, the on-the-air disc jockey. But that's not what got my fame. Everybody knew everybody in Mariposa. So I would walk through town and somebody would see me and stop me. And what do you think they want to know? They tell me about their cousin, their uncle, their father, their uncle, their sister, their brother. They tell me about everybody that's gone through what I've gone through. But they'd also say, Jon, how do you do it? How do you do it? I go, what do you mean? I says, you walk around here with no cane, no crutches, no walker, no wheelchair. How do you do it? I says, because I told myself. Early on, when I knew what was happening, that I was not gonna depend on any crutch, I wasn't gonna depend on any wheelchair, any walker, and I was gonna walk on my own two legs. Of course, they gave it to me. My leg costs more than a house, come on. But guess what? I'm using it and I'm walking. And sometimes they would ask me questions about their parents, their sister, their brother, brain cancer, arm cancer, all kinds of cancer. And they'd ask me, how do I talk to them? What do I say to them? How do I treat them? See, there's a word. How do I treat them? Knowing they have cancer. They're gonna have cancer. They've had cancer. They've been through chemo. How do I treat them? And I always tell everybody, treat them the same as if they had nothing. Because to help them along their journey, they have to know that the decisions they're making to prolong their life or to do something to help themselves is making the right decisions. Because if somebody told me, John, you don't need chemo. You can beat this. Chemo's a killer. I heard all those stories. But then I remember my friend who took the holistic approach. had the same cancer I have, and it went through her body. For six months after I lost my leg, every six months, I was getting a CT scan and a chest X-ray because of mestications in my lungs. It took two years before they finally gave me a clean bill of health, and now I go back every year for my chest X-ray and CT scan. I still get that done. And see, because you don't listen to yourself, you don't tell yourself what you want to do with yourself in life, then ain't nobody can tell you that. Can't nobody say, Johnny, not how you feel. I can't tell you that to me unless it's another amputee, but somebody walking out healthy, strong, two good arms, two good legs. They cannot. When I go through my despair, which I don't go through because you know why? Because I will not allow myself to do that. I cannot allow myself to go down that road because that's a dark road. And a lot of people never come back when they drop down that road. And if I did that, then I would be dishonoring my mom. And let me tell you why. Because my mom, who passed away, love my mom, she says this, don't ever tell a young blood what they can't do. Don't ever let someone tell a young blood what they can't do. And to this day, that resonates every time I get myself up in the morning and I put that prosthetic on and I go out there and I'm doing what I'm supposed to do every day from climbing to fixing to driving to walking. I'm doing everything just as everybody else is doing except, you know, I got to be a little bit more careful. You know, you got to be a little careful. So when I got here in North Carolina, I worked for a place that taught disabled, actually developedly disabled, severely handicapped children and adults sports. I would teach them sports. I was teaching blind veterans how to play archery, how to shoot archery. Blind veterans shoot archery. Taking them out there riding a bike, I was riding them. I was teaching them how to shoot air rifles, teaching wheelchair basketball. I was teaching all of that stuff. And then I ran into a friend of mine I met at the rehab in the VA in Durham. And he says, John, I got a question. I've talked to you a lot and seen how you are with everybody in the veterans and stuff. Why don't you show up at an amputee support group meeting here one day and just meet me there one night, first Tuesday of the month. So I show up and I walk in the room and there's at least seven veterans in there. And they have that look that I had, that I felt in my heart. What's going to happen to me? What am I supposed to do? Where do I go from here? And the biggest look of all I saw, I'm terrified. I'm terrified because I don't know what my future holds for me. I am terrified. You know, and the purpose of the amputee support group is to indoctrinate new veterans and talk to them, and which I do, about being an amputee, what you expect, what you can do, need help with, equipment, who to talk to, where to go, and how to build your strength and what you need to do. And that's what I do. I work with them a lot. And I usually go to work with programs if I get called extra time besides that. So I can do a lot with the veterans on that there. Then one of my decompression zones is one of the best is what you can see in the background. If you look at my shoulder, you see them airplanes back there. That's my decompression zone. I'll stand up a little bit. You'll see my shirt. It says I'm the club trainer. You can see it right there. It says club trainer.

Yeah.

You know what that means? That means I teach everybody that comes into my club. I'm the club trainer. And actually, I'm out sometimes four times a week. I'm out teaching somebody. And my youngest student, eight years old. Wow. My oldest student, 84. And that's where I decompress. That's where I relax. That's where it helps me not think about my leg. Because one of the biggest questions, and I forgot to address this, that people want to know is that because I don't have a limb, Do I feel pain and nerves, or do I still feel like the leg is there? And they always ask that question, though. Is it really like they say you could feel like your leg is there? And I said, yeah, it's there. I said, because I can tell you what it's doing right now. I can tell you I'm wiggling my toes. I can tell you I'm moving my ankle. I can tell you I got an itch on my ankle, and I can't scratch it. I can tell you my foot is, my foot's there. And then they want to know the severity of the pain that usually happens. And I'll share it, because they may want to know because of somebody they know. And I say, well, the severity of my pain could be anywhere from light to the fact that if you, I can best describe it this way. Take your foot, put it in water, take your foot out while it's wet, and hit it with the bottom of the stun gun. And if you know what a stun gun feels like without hitting water on you, you know it's going to feel like when you hit water on it. That's the best I can tell you. I'm in pain most of the time. I'm able to mitigate it by what I do. But I don't show it 90% of the time, because if it's there, it's going to be there. Medicines they give me, they deaden it, but it doesn't keep them from giving me jolts every now and then. But it's not controlling what I do, all right? It's not determining what I do. So a lot of times when I go fly, I drive. I have to drive 45 minutes to get to my flying field. Sometimes I have to pass on it because of my legs. But the planes that you can see in the back, they're pretty big. I have some pretty big ones. I have some small ones. And I've been flying since the 70s. So that's a long time.

Wow. So what made you take up that hobby? Airplanes.

Air Force. Yeah. My dad, now this is kudos to him, my dad taught me to fly control line when I was 10 or 11 years old. He taught us all how to fly control line 10 or 11 years old. And I picked up an interest in airplanes from him. And I've always loved airplanes. And just last month, Andy Patterson, our president of the club, was having control line demonstrations. And he was getting everybody out there to fly control line. And he says to me, he said, Jon, you have a flight control line? Now, he knows my leg. I says, yeah, my dad taught me when I was 10, 11 years old. How long ago has it been that? I said, 55, 60 years ago, something like that, you know? He said, let's get you out there. I says, probably. And he says, hey, you've been out to RDI. I said, you've seen that guy out there in a wheelchair, haven't you, doing control line? He says, yeah. I said, well, you can do it with your one leg. OK, fine. So I get out there. And I go around. And I'm on lap one, lap two, lap three. Lap four, lap five. And I'm starting to get kind of weird now because my balance is, I have to get ahead of the airplane. He gave me a fast plane. Lap seven, lap eight. And I said, Andy, you better take it because it's going down. And he grabs it. Lap nine, I go down. I flip end over end with my leg. And of course, I'm trying to make sure I don't snap my leg off. And I'm looking at the sky afterwards. I'm looking at the sky because I went down at nine laps. While I was on the ground, I looked up and I said, Dad, this is for you. This is what you taught me to do when I was 10, you know, 60 years ago. And then Andy took four more other people out there. And you know, those four people didn't survive two laps. So I think that was an accomplishment for me in my own. And I thought that was really cool. So yeah. And so the hobby got picked up there and then I picked it up in the military. I was flying when I was in military RC and I was flying just model airplane. If you Google on the internet, you'll see all kinds of weird kind of flying, 3D flying and all that. Me, I'm just a casual flyer, you know, like the casual golfer that goes out at Jibiru. You don't care if he wins or loses. He just goes out there to golf just for the exercise. That's the kind of pilot I am. Can I do that kind of flying? If I wanted to, yeah. But then I'd have to get serious. And if I get serious about flying, then I won't have fun. Right now, I'm having a lot of fun. So I don't need to be serious. If I lose a plane, I've got, I'm going to count them out. I'm going to count them out to you. Ready? I've got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 in one drone. Good lord, man. In this little room, 17 planes in one room. So yeah, rewarding hobby. And you gotta come out there. I'll get you on the sticks. You come out there, put you up in an airplane, and you'll make cousin Michael mad because he wants you to fly to Boston to fly with him up that way and take one up to fly with him, which is okay. It boils down to You gotta have a decompression. You gotta have something that will distract you, keep you grounded, and keep you focused. But you also gotta do something that's good in your heart, that you feel is good for your soul, that makes you feel happy about it. And do I wake up some mornings and say, I wish I had my leg? Yeah. But guess what? I also wake up every morning and I said, if I had not lost my leg, I wouldn't be here talking to you today. Think about it. My message wouldn't be getting to anybody if I had not lost my leg. Think of all of those people that I had talked to in California. Relay for life when I was speaking. Think of all of those people that would stop and talk to me personally. Think of all of those people that would see me and talk to me and ask me questions. All of those people I would never have touched. I can't tell you how many, because I never kept count. And I never put a clock on when I talked to them. I talked to them until they were tired of talking. And then I'd say, didn't they be happy with their questions and everything? And sometimes their relative or their family member would give me a call and I'd talk to them. So that's the only way to survive. You have to own it. You have to own what's going on with you. You have to own the disability. I don't consider myself disabled. When I go parking here, in these places, I park in a regular parking spot. And you're gonna laugh at this one. Why do I park in a regular parking spot? Because I feel that people are more severely disabled than I am, which is a dumb thing to think, right? But that's how I think. I'm capable of getting out of my car and walking, you know? I've had people in the market with these go-karts you ride, stop and say they can give me the go-kart. I said, no, I got two good legs, see you later, bye. You know, and I'd be out walking them, you know? No, I got two good legs. Don't give me, no, no, that's a crutch. Uh-uh, I'd rather walk. I don't care. So the best part of all of this is though, that I feel it's in me that helps me survive this each and every day, besides a wonderful family, is as long as I'm good with what I'm doing inside, and as long as it makes me happy when I wake up in the morning and say I've accomplished something, then I'm good. If I wake up one morning and said, I haven't done a daggone thing with my life, that's dumb to think that. Because there's always something you can look forward to. There always is. And you know, I don't think, unless it affects somebody personally, how they could accept what's going on, except to hear it from me or somebody else. But when I was in Yosemite, this young man, 20-something years old, married, He was a tree climber. You know what that is? They go up and they trim the trees off the lines and they make the trees. You know what that is. He's a tree climber. Carries a chainsaw. Carries a little saw. He carries all this equipment. He's up a tree. Top of a tree. He's cutting these branches. And he used to come in and talk to me all the time in the shop because he couldn't believe when he saw my leg. He didn't even know. And then tragedy struck this young man. He was up a tree. He went to cut a branch. Chainsaw kicked up. hit him in his neck, missed his jugular vein by inches, but took his arm off, took his arm off. Who do you think the first person he wanted to talk to when he came out of the surgery? He said, I got to talk to John. You get John in here. I don't care. He told his wife, you get John in here. I want to talk to John. I need to talk to John. And when I saw him, I told him what happened. And he says, no, he says, It's an accident, it happens. But now, they're going to give me this new arm where I'm going to flex my arm and muscles and all that. And I'm just going to be like you now. I'm just going to accept it, move on. And I said, that's pretty awesome. When did you decide that though? You just lost your arm a few days ago. He said, I decided that a long time ago, because even though I didn't have an accident, I always admired your spirit and how you accepted what's going on. And I said, as old as you are, if you can accept it, then as young as I am, I can accept it. And yeah, he was, I have a picture of him someplace. He came back to work almost as fast as I did. I did in three days. He came back in like six days. He was back to work in six days, working in an office, doing what he can. They brought him back to work. Why? Because he said he couldn't stay home. He couldn't stay home. So if that young man knew ahead of time, before he was going to have his accident, what it was like to talk to somebody that pressed through diversity, if he knew then, and people else out there know, then can you imagine the message we're sending to those out there that haven't got the message yet, you know, to those that, like you said, that are not doing anything with what their disability. They're sitting feeling sorry for themselves. They're saying, what was me? They don't know what to do. No, you seek out another one that can help you, that can relate with you, that can tell you things, that can show you what you're missing, that can show you what you got to look forward to. You see? Like, I look forward to walking. Do I look forward to running a marathon? No. Can I? Yes, I can. I can program it in my phone to function to run it. I can ride a bike. I can program my leg to loosen up, to tighten up. I can wear a blade if I want. I can do all of that. But I don't want to. You know why? Because I'm happy and content with the zone that I put myself into where I'm comfortable at. I don't need to run a marathon with my leg on to prove that I've accomplished something, you know? I've seen past it. All I need to do is wake up every morning and accept that I'm putting my leg on and accept the day as it comes in front of me. That's all I can do. Anything after that is gravy. Because, you know, prosthetic arm walking is half of the story, is most of the story. It's a discovery every day when I'm out there. And not just for me, but for others too. So, you know.

That's amazing. That's amazing. Now, the crazy part about this is that I think this is God right now. because this is the first podcast that I didn't have to ask any questions. You hit every question that I was going to ask you today, every one, which is amazing.

Well, you wanted to know my story and you wanted to know my journey. And most times when you read a book and it's really good, you don't want to put it down. You just want to keep reading that book. And you lose track of time when you're reading this book. But you want to read the book. You don't want to put it down. And if you do, you can't wait to get back to it. So I figured you wanted to know the journey of my story, to my journey, to where I'm at. In between, you could have stopped me. But I had a feeling that, you know, this is what I agree. It's what's supposed to happen. Remember what I told that young lady? No, God wasn't punishing me. He was telling me my life needs to move into a different direction. You see? And it went in a different direction. Maybe he's trying to tell me to slow down, because I had a weird lifetime in California. I don't know. I don't know what he's telling me. But I didn't feel sorry for myself. And I didn't say, you know, I give up. Let me get in a veteran's home. Let me just sit in a corner. Let me go feel sorry for myself.

So on that note, lastly, what would you say to someone who is considered disabled but still want to pursue their dreams and their passion in life?

It goes back to what I said. If you remain true to yourself and you remain the person who you were and who you still are, It's going to take a little bit of bruising and bumping and stuff to find that person back because you're going to go through traumatic things. You're going to go through a lot of things. You have to just hang on to something that keeps you focused. Like my focus from the very beginning was, I'm going to walk. I don't care. I'm walking. And that's all there is to it. very beginning. That's what was my focus. And that drove me. Once I started walking, then everything else I started accepting. I started accepting the fact that I had to put a prosthetic on every morning and the weight of it and turning and falling and driving. I had to accept the changes in my lifestyle, what I can do and what I can't do, where I can go, what I can't go. But see, technically, I can do anything I want. I just have to be more conscious of what's going on around me, my surroundings, like in an airport. I used to walk in an airport by myself because I didn't mind walking. But then after I got bumped around and pushed around so much, I decided, no, I ain't going to do that. Why? Because I knew eventually I would get pushed down or I'd get bumped out of the way. So I took a cart. You got to know your limitations and you got to know where your limit is. your limitations and where you can go, your high limit, your low limit. The person that is facing it, and then the biggest thing I would say is seek out, find somebody that has walked that journey, that's been there. Find somebody that you know, family member, go to the VA if you're a veteran, if you're at a mental health facility or where their medical doctors are, they know people. Every doctor I will tell you that has done an amputation they have somebody that they can refer you to talk to. I used to have my doctor send me people's names and call me and say, Jon, is it okay if I have this person call you? So the doctors were there to talk to you because the doctor said the best experienced future amputee or somebody that's gone through this can do is to talk to somebody that's been there. And that's what they can do. Now, mind you, okay, you have to take into consideration Each person is different. Each personality of a person is different. Each aspect of that person inside is different. Their beliefs, their non-beliefs. I don't expect anybody to be as motivated and highly generated as I was and made fun of the surgery when I said, you know, lop it off on April 15th. I don't expect a lot of people going to say something like that because they're too busy realizing that I'm going to be an amputee soon. But what the point about that whole story was, is that before I told the story, I had told the doctor already, I'm already walking. I see myself walking already. So already I told the doctor, I've accepted what's going on. I made his job easy. So he didn't have to talk to me as much. And you know, to this day, every time I go to the VA, when I have to go to my yearly meeting, about my amputation, I have to go every year for, they call it, counsel. I always sit down, they talk to me, they wanna know how I'm doing. They are really concerned about how I'm doing, where I'm going. And they see I'm doing great, so they go, what's the purpose of this meeting? And they go, but they have to have it. But every time I leave, Dennis says the same thing to me every time, every year, you know what that is? He says, John, you know that office still on, you can come in and talk to us any time about it, about your leg and everything else. And you know what I tell him? I said, Dennis, oh, yeah, let me walk in. I'm going to walk in, lay on the desk, sit down. You're going to sit down. I'm going to lay back. Doctor's going to say, John, how are you doing? I'm going to fine. He said, what do you think about your leg? I'm going to say, hey, it's not there. Let's go. Finish. I accepted it. Let's roll on. Waste the doctor's time. But see, to this day, they still ask me do I want to come in and talk to somebody about it. And I go, no, because I don't need to. I would rather use that time for somebody else out there. Because I have already accepted the direction that I have to travel. And I've already accepted who I am, what I am, and what I need to do to keep surviving. And if that includes talking to others, if that includes counseling others, that includes showing others, does that include being available for others, other veterans or civilian amputees, it doesn't matter. And that's what I'm going to do. I could be walking down the street, somebody could tap me on my shoulder and talk to me about it. Hey, because they want to know and they need to know. They don't want to be afraid of what's going on. You don't want to look in somebody's eyes and see that terrifying look that says, I'm terrified. That's a look nobody should ever want to see, especially if somebody that's, you know, an amputee for the first time, because they're lost. And it's our job to help guide them to the light, to help them find their way. And that's what I do. And that's what I'm going to continue to do until I can't do that no more.

Wow. That's powerful, man. That's real powerful. But Jon, man, I thank you for dropping by to talk to us today. This has been an amazing moment. I'm pretty sure this is going to bless a lot of people.

I appreciate you having me here. And if it's just one, then you know what? We've done something. Because, you know, one talks to 10, talks to 50, talks to 100. Even if it's just one, which I got a feeling it's more than one. But I hold with my feeling that if it's just one, one talks to 10, you know how that bonfire works.

That's it. So, Jon, we really appreciate you, man. And we'll definitely be in touch and catch up again, because my brother enjoyed this. 

Oh, absolutely. And I want to get you out there and flying now. Remember that. 

OK. 

Got to get you out there. Okay. And I can train anybody. I can train anybody. I got the patience of Joe. Remember that. 

All right, man. I look forward to it. All right. All right. Thank you for tuning in to Real Talk with Reginald D. If you enjoyed the show, please share with anyone you feel that needs to take this journey with us on being a better youth. See you next time.