| FALL RIVER -- The most impressive
thing about Travis Roy's 10 rules of life is that they were formed long
before a fluke hockey accident left him paralyzed and cast an unavoidable
national spotlight onto his remarkable story.
Left a quadriplegic after slamming headfirst into the boards only 11
seconds into his first college hockey game at Boston University, the now
25-year-old man has shown inspiring courage in the face of adversity.
But while his injury has brought celebrity, the message he travels the
country to share is based mostly on a speech he gave at his Tabor Academy
graduation -- when dreams of playing professional hockey still filled his
head and the accident that would change his life was months away.
Yesterday, as he candidly told hundreds of local high school boys about
his experiences, even the wheelchair holding his body prisoner couldn't hide
a truth that brought more than one audience member to tears: Travis Roy is
special now, but Travis Roy was special before.
"The lessons I learned before my accident are what get me through today,"
he said during a keynote address at the Southcoast Hospitals Group's third
annual male awareness conference -- "2001: A Male Odyssey," at Bristol
Community College. The conference also featured workshops aimed at helping
teenage boys deal with a variety of social pressures.
"Some people look at me and think 'You can't walk. You can't feel.' But I
know the truth. I know I'm lucky. They don't realize that I have so much to
be thankful for."
Growing up in Yarmouth, Maine, his father, a longtime hockey coach and
local rink manager, Mr. Roy learned to skate and walk simultaneously. By the
time he reached middle school, he aspired to play varsity high school
hockey, to make a Division 1 collegiate squad, to play in the NHL and maybe
in the Olympics.
After transferring to Tabor Academy in Marion, he began to set academic
goals as well, and soon, college scholarships poured in from the University
of Michigan, Boston University, even Harvard, he said yesterday.
BU had won the national hockey championship that year and eventually won
his heart too. He worked all summer to secure a spot in the starting
line-up, and as the national title banner was raised to the rafters before
the team's 1995 season opener against North Dakota, his pride rose along
with it.
"I remember standing there looking at the national title and hearing the
national anthem and I got tears in my eyes," he said yesterday. "I had made
it."
The joy lasted just 11 seconds.
Barreling toward a North Dakota player on his initial run down the ice,
Mr. Roy lost his balance and fell headfirst into the side boards. His body
flopped limp to the ice, where it remained for more than 20 minutes.
"I lay there facing the ice and my mind told my body to get up, but there
was nothing," he said. "I knew in that instant, I was paralyzed.
"When I was growing up, my Dad never came onto the ice when I fell down.
He'd always say 'Get up. You're not hurt.' And when I asked the doctors to
get him that night, at first he said 'What's going on? Let's get you up.'
But I told him 'I'm not getting up this time.' And when he looked in my
eyes, he knew it was over."
His neck broken, he was rushed to the hospital. But despite intricate
surgery and months of rehabilitation, a bruise between the fourth and fifth
vertebrae of Mr. Roy's spinal cord -- roughly the size of a pencil eraser --
keeps him paralyzed from the neck down and requiring around-the-clock
medical care.
In the months and years since the accident, his story has captured
national headlines, helped raise thousands of dollars for spinal cord
research and is the subject of both a planned motion picture and his
autobiography, "Eleven Seconds."
But more important, it has allowed him to speak passionately to audiences
across the country about the simple life lessons he's learned. Lessons like,
"Never take anything for granted," and, "The more you respect others, the
more they'll respect you."
"Another rule is to realize that your life is just beginning and that
there's always more lessons to learn," Mr. Roy said. "I said that at my high
school graduation, and little did I know how true it would be in less than a
year."
He also urged students, including boys from New Bedford, Fall River,
Fairhaven, Wareham and Old Rochester Regional, to stay in school and value
their education. He told them to find something they're passionate about and
set manageable goals for attaining it.
"In those 11 seconds on the ice, I achieved my goal," said Mr. Roy, who
last year graduated from BU with a degree in public relations. "All that
hard work I had put in and the goals I had set paid off.
"I've got a new set of challenges now and I know you have your own set of
challenges. Some of them are easier to overcome than others, but it doesn't
mean you should give up."
March 16, 2002 |