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When we're young, we're innocently brave,

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and we fearlessly dream
about what our lives might be like.

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Maybe you wanted to be an astronaut
or a rocket scientist.

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Maybe you dreamed
of traveling to every continent.

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Since I was very young,

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I dreamed of working
for the United Nations

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in some of the most difficult
countries in the world.

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And thanks to a lot of courage

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that dream came true.

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But here's the thing about courage:

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it doesn't just appear
whenever we need it.

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It's the result of tough
reflection and real work,

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involving the balance
between fear and bravery.

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Without fear, we'll do foolish things.

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And without courage,
we'll never step into the unknown.

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The balance of the two
is where the magic lies,

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and it's a balance
we all deal with every day.

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First, a word about my fancy wheels.

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I haven't always used a wheelchair.

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I grew up like many of you,

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running, jumping and dancing.

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I love to dance.

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However, in my mid-twenties,

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I began to experience
a series of inexplicable falls.

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And a few years later,

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I was diagnosed with a recessive
genetic condition

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called hereditary inclusion body myopathy,

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or HIBM.

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It's a progressive muscle wasting disease

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that affects all of my muscles
from head to toe.

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HIBM is very rare.

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In the United States there are
less than 200 people diagnosed.

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To date, there is
no proved treatment or cure,

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and within 10 to 15 years of its onset,

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HIBM typically leads to quadriplegia,

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which is why I now use a wheelchair.

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When I was first diagnosed,
everything changed.

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It was frightening news

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because I had no experience
with chronic illness or disabilities.

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And I had no idea
how the disease might progress.

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But what was most disheartening

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was to listen to other people advise me

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to limit my ambitions and dreams,

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and to change my expectations
of what to expect from life.

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"You should quit
your international career."

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"No one will marry you this way."

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"You would be selfish to have children."

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The fact that someone who wasn't me

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was putting limitations
on my dreams and ambitions

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was preposterous.

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And unacceptable.

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So I ignored them.

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(Cheers and applause)

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I did get married.

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And I decided for myself
not to have children.

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And I continued my career
with the United Nations

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after my diagnosis,

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going to work for two years in Angola,

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a country recovering
from 27 years of brutal civil war.

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However, it would be another five years

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until I officially declared
my diagnosis to my employer.

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Because I was afraid

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that they would question my capacity
to manage and I'd lose my job.

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I was working in countries
where polio had been common,

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so when I overheard someone say

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that they thought
I might have survived polio,

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I thought my secret was safe.

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No one asked why I was limping.

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So I didn't say anything.

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It took me over a decade

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to internalize the severity of HIBM,

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even as basic tasks and functions
became increasingly difficult.

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Yet, I continued to pursue my dream
of working all over the world,

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and was even appointed
as a disability focal point

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for UNICEF in Haiti,

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where I served for two years
after the devastating 2010 earthquake.

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And then my work brought me
to the United States.

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And even as the disease
progressed significantly

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and I needed leg braces
and a walker to get around,

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I still longed for adventure.

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And this time,

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I started dreaming
of a grand outdoor adventure.

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And what's more grand
than the Grand Canyon?

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Did you know that for every
five million people who visit the Rim

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only one percent go down
to the canyon's base?

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I wanted to be a part of that one percent.

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The only thing is --

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(Applause)

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The only thing is that the Grand Canyon
isn't exactly accessible.

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I was going to need some assistance

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to get down the 5,000-foot descent
of vertical loose terrain.

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Now, when I face obstacles,

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fear doesn't necessarily
immediately set in

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because I assume that one way or another,

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I'll figure it out.

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And in this case, my thought was,

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well, if I can't walk down,

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I could learn to ride a horse.

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So that's what I did.

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And with that fateful decision

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began a four-year commitment,

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tossing back and forth
between fear and courage

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to undertake a 12-day expedition.

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Four days on horseback
to cross Grand Canyon rim to rim,

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and eight days rafting
150 miles of the Colorado River,

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all with a film crew in tow.

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Spoiler alert -- we made it.

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But not without showing me
how my deepest fear

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can somehow manifest
a mirror response of equal courage.

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On April 13, 2018,

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sitting eight feet above the ground,

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riding a mustang horse named Sheriff,

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my first impression of Grand Canyon

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was one of shock and terror.

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Who knew I had a fear of heights.

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(Laughter)

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But there was no giving up now.

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I mustered up every ounce
of courage inside me

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to not let my fear get the best of me.

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Embarking on the South Rim,

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all I could do to keep myself composed

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was to breathe deeply,
stare up into the clouds

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and focus on my team's voices.

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But then, in the first hour,
disaster struck.

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Unable to hold myself
upright in the saddle,

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going down an oversized step,

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I flung forward and smacked my face
on the back of the horse's head.

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There was panic,

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my head hurt fiercely,

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but the path was too narrow
for us to dismount.

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Only at the halfway point at 2,300 feet,

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at least another two hours down,

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could we stop and remove my helmet

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and see the egg-sized bump
protruding from my forehead.

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For all of that planning and gear,

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how is it that we didn't
even have an ice pack?

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(Laughter)

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Luckily for all of us,
the swelling came outwards,

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and would drain into my face
as two fantastic black eyes

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which is an amazing way to look
in a documentary film.

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(Laughter)

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(Applause and cheers)

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This was not an easy, peaceful journey,

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and yet, that was exactly the point.

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Even though I was afraid
to get back into the saddle,

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I got back in.

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The descent alone to the canyon floor

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took a total of 10 hours

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and that was just day one of four riding.

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Next came the mighty rapids.

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The Colorado River in the Grand Canyon

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has some of the highest
white water in the country.

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And just to be prepared
in case we should capsize,

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we'd practice having me swim
through a smaller rapid.

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And it's safe to say it wasn't glamorous.

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(Laughter)

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I took my breath
in the wrong part of the wave,

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choked on river water

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and was unable to steer myself.

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Yes, it was scary,

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but it was also fantastic.

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Waterfalls, slick canyons

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and a couple billion years of bedrock

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that seemed to change color
throughout the day.

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The Grand Canyon is true wilderness

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and worthy of all of its accolades.

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(Applause)

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The expedition,

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all that planning and the trip itself,

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showed me a level of fear
I had never experienced before.

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But more importantly,

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it showed me how boldly
courageous I can be.

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My Grand Canyon journey was not easy.

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This was not a vision
of an Amazonian woman

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effortlessly making her way
through epic scenery.

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This was me crying,

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exhausted and beat up with two black eyes.

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It was scary,

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it was stressful,

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it was exhilarating.

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Now that the trip is over,

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it's easy to be blasé
about what we achieved.

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I know I want to raft the river again.

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This time, all 277 miles of it.

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(Applause)

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But I also know that I would never do
the horseback-riding part again.

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(Laughter)

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It's just too dangerous.

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And that's my real point.

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I'm not just here
to show you my film footage.

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I'm here to remind us all

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that life is really just a lesson

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in finding the balance
between fear and courage.

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And understanding what is
and what isn't a good idea.

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(Laughter)

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Life is already scary,

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so for our dreams to come true,
we need to be brave.

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In facing my fears

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and finding the courage
to push through them,

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I swear my life has been extraordinary.

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So live big

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and try to let your courage
outweigh your fear.

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You never know where it might take you.

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Thank you.

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(Applause and cheers)