WEBVTT

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This right here is a photo of me
when I was 14 years old.

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Now, I know what you're thinking,

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'Dylan, mate,

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are you sure that's not Ryan Gosling?'

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(Laughter)

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But, unfortunately, no,
this is a photo of me.

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Now, for a long time, I tried to delete
this photo from my memory,

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and to be honest, do you blame me?

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Firstly, what the hell
is going on with my hair there?

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I remember my mum's a hairdresser.

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I used to sit in the front seat of her car
with a tub of gel and a hairbrush,

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and on the way to school every day,
I'd sit there thinking,

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'Dylan, you have absolutely nailed it!'

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(Laughter)

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I still don't understand
why she let me leave the car.

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Also, secondly,

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where the hell are my eyebrows?

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(Laughter)

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Now,

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unfortunately for me,

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I didn't grow any eyebrows
until I was 17 years old.

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Now, I understand that I had
completely no control over that,

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but, as you can imagine,
it wasn't really helping my cause, was it?

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I also had braces.

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I also had my bed in the pantry,

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and I was a little bit
on the overweight side.

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This was really the first time in my life

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that I was really struggling
with my disability.

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Up until this age, I'd never really cared
about the fact that I was in a wheelchair.

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Everybody was young,
nobody really noticed it,

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and everything just
went along pretty smoothly.

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But, at this time,
things started to change.

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People started going to house parties.

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Boys started kissing girls,
girls started kissing boys.

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Girls starting kissing girls,

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and occasionally,
boys started kissing boys.

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But, absolutely nobody was kissing Dylan,

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I can tell you that much.

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And it was also about the first time

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that I really thought about myself
as being weird because I had a disability.

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And, to be honest, that really sucked,

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and had a really big effect
on absolutely everything that I did.

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I started having a crap time at school.


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It really started affecting
my sporting career as well.

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For the first time in my life,
I was really, really down on myself.

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And then, the next year, in Year 9,
something happened.

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A mate of mine was having a house party.


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Now, this was a really good mate of mine.

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And previously, I'd never really been
invited to that many house parties,

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and I thought, 'What a perfect opportunity
to go to your first one.

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I'm absolutely going to kill it,

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and everybody will invite me
to all the parties coming up ever since'.

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Now, the invites for the party came out,
and what do you reckon happened?

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I didn't get one.

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I didn't get an invite.

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And I remember thinking to myself,


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'That is bullshit.

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Like, I'm actually
really good friends with this guy,

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how could I not be invited to his party?'

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I was sitting at home
the day of the party,

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and I went to myself,
'I just really, really want to go'.

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Now, back in the day when you're 15,16,
it was super uncool and lame

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to text the person to ask
if you can come to the party.

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The far more badass thing to do
was simply turn up and jump the fence.

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(Laughter)

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Now, as you could imagine,

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jumping, it's not really my forte.

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And unless I had some kind of crane
or, like, trampoline device ...

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(Laughter)

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there was no way in hell
that I was getting over that fence.

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The only way to get in

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was to knock on the door
and go through the front.

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Anyway, I sat at home
and I'm like, 'Stuff it.

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I'm going to go and see what happens'.

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I go to the front door, knocked
on the door, and my mate answered.

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And he had this really weird, shocked look
on his face, like I was there.

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I remember thinking to myself,
like, 'What have I done?

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Why didn't I sit at home and play N64,
like I did every other Saturday night?'

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Anyway, he looked at me, and he said,

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'Dyl, mate, I'm so glad that you came.

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I didn't know if you could
get in my house because of the stairs,

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so I didn't invite you'.

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I remember thinking
to myself, 'Is that it?

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Is that genuinely the only reason
that I wasn't invited?'

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Anyway, I went in that house party,

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absolutely crushed it,
had an awesome time.

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(Laughter)

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I remember the next day, I woke up,
and I was really bloody mad at myself.

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I was really mad at myself

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that I let my insecurities
and my embarrassment about my disability

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dictate the previous year of my life.

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I was really mad at myself
that I believed this thing,

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this negative stigma
that having a disability

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makes you weird, makes you different,

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and that's the only reason
people don't want to hang out with you.

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I'm really mad at myself
that I didn't just grow a set of balls,

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have some confidence, talk to my friends
and educate them about my disability.

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Now, the only reason
I wasn't invited that night

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wasn't because they didn't like me,

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but it was because I didn't tell them
about my disability.

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I didn't tell them
I could get up the stairs,

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and it'll all be fine.

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I sat at home for a whole year
thinking these people didn't like me.

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The only reason that they did was because
they weren't educated about disability,

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and I really didn't do anything
to educate them on it.

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So, after that night,
things really changed for me.

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I started being more social,

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I started getting a lot fitter,

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I started going out a lot more,

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and I even started kissing
the odd girl or two.

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(Laughter)

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After that night,
I made a pact with myself.

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I made a pact with myself

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to never, ever let my disability
get in the way of what I wanted to do.

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I made a pact with myself
to not be scared of my disability,

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but rather to embrace it
in everything that I did.

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Because of that, I've been able to live
a truly, incredibly awesome life.

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In 2008, I was lucky enough

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to win a gold medal
at the Paralympic games,

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playing basketball for Australia -
wheelchair basketball, believe it or not.

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This was incredible for me.

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Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to go
to the Paralympic games.

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The Paralympics -
for those who don't know -

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is the pinnacle of elite sport
for people with disabilities.

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But a lot of people

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don't know the true meaning
of the word 'Paralympic'.

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The word is actually split in two:

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the 'Olympic' part -
which represents the Olympics,

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the pinnacle of sport -

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and the 'Para' part.

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There's a common misconception

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that the 'Para' part
actually means paraplegic or paralysed,

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but this isn't the case.

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The 'Para' actually represents 'parallel',

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meaning the Paralympics runs parallel,
or alongside, the Olympics.

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Same gold medals, same venues,
same elite athletes, same time.

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The only difference is obviously we all
have disabilities at the Paralympics.

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Now, this was awesome in Beijing for me.

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I was 17 years old at the time,

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so I was still doing my HSC or VCE
while I was over there.

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To be 17 years old and sit on top
of the podium with 12 of your best mates -

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guys that had lost limbs to cancer,

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other guys that had horrific accidents
on their worksites

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so were left up in wheelchairs.

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Other guys who had car crashes
and never be able to walk again

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and lost loved ones in the process.

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To sit on top of that podium
and so proud of what we had done,

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singing that national anthem
with tears in our eyes -

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it was the best thing
that ever happened to me.

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It really was incredible
and something I'll cherish forever.

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I've also got a bit of a name for myself

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as the dude that crowd surfs 
in his wheelchair at festivals.

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(Laughter)

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I've been very lucky
to travel around the world

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attending different music festivals.

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Everybody knows me as,

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'You're the guy that
crowd surfs in his wheelchair!'

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To be honest, the first [time]
that I ever did this

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was completely out of necessity

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because I was sick and tired
of sitting in the mosh pit

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and looking at all your asses all day.

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(Laughter)

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You don't understand how much
that sucks after a while.

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But from the first time I did it,
I was absolutely hooked.

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It's an incredible feeling, 
sitting on top of that crowd

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in what I like to call
the best seat in the house.

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It really is incredible.

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I think it's a really cool metaphor
for people with disabilities as well,

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what they can really do,

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getting out there, breaking the mould,
doing what's unexpected of them.

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On a side note,
I've only fallen out once.

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And don't worry, I didn't get
any more disabled from the fall,

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so it's all good.

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(Laughter)

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Now,

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when I reflect on my life,
I think back to when -

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I'm really happy that I can sit here now

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and think that all this stuff
almost didn't happen to me.

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I remember back when I was 14,
I think of 14-year-old Dylan, and I think

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I had these really low expectations
of myself of what I could achieve.

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And I let that dictate
what I did in everyday life.

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I think back to 14-year-old Dylan

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who thought of his disability
as this really shitty burden

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that was really hard to overcome.

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I think back to 14-year-old Dylan,

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and I think I'm so lucky doing
what I'm doing these days.

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I'm so glad that I could challenge
my own perception

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about what I thought about disability.

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And to be honest, I can sit here
in front of you all today

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and tell you 100% honest truth:

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if I ever had the chance
to go back in time

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or eat some kind of magic pill
and walk again,

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there's no way in hell
you could pay me enough to do it.

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Because I absolutely love
everything in my life,

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wheelchair or not.

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I wouldn't change it for the world.

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But, unfortunately, there are so many kids
across the world, all around Australia

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that are really struggling socially
because of their disabilities.

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Disability remains this thing
that nobody wants to talk about.

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There's still this negative stigma

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that having this disability
is this weird, unlucky, really ugly thing.

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And for kids with disability
that don't have any confidence,

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it's really hard
for them to get over this

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and get into the world
and do what they want to do.

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And it really restricts everything
that they want to achieve.

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There are heaps of problems in the world:

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poverty, refugees,
same-sex marriage, gender equality.

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They're all very, very important things.

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But when the hell do you ever
hear anything about disability?

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Or when do you ever turn on the TV

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and see the first news story
about somebody with a disability?

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Or when do you turn on your TV
and see a wheelchair TV presenter -

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sorry, a presenter in a wheelchair?

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Or somebody with cerebral palsy
in our parliaments?

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Or an actual blind actor
playing a blind actor,

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as opposed to some bloke
who's just closing his eyes?

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(Laughter)

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Now, I remember when I was a kid,

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when I was struggling, when I was 14,

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I just wish I could have
turned on my television

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and seen a guy in a wheelchair achieving.

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Because it would have
made me realise that,

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'You know what? I could do that too!
That, one day, could be me'.

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I wish I had a positive
role model in the media

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where I could have seen somebody
absolutely killing it,

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and that would've instilled
the confidence in me

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to get out there and do whatever I want.

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I think it's really important
moving forward that we, as a society,

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change our perception of disability
away from this idea

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that it's this really bad,
unlucky, weird thing,

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and stop being so scared to talk about it.

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We need to realise that it's okay
to have any disability,

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and we need to further our expectations
of what people with disabilities can do.

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Moving forward,
I think in order to do that,

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we need to mainstream disability.

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Get people with disabilities
into our mainstream media,

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and that will increase
the visibility in a positive light.

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We need to make disability
heaps more commonplace.

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We need to start
the conversation about it,

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which will go a long way
in normalising it.

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And then, who knows?

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Maybe one day, if we can do that,

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these kids, like me, like I used to be,

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won't be going through such a tough time.

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They won't be embarrassed
about their disability ever again.

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They'll have the confidence
to go out there and do whatever they want.

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But, as a society, we really have to hope 
they pick a much better haircut than that.

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Thank you.

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(Applause) (Cheers)