No Excuses!

Left alone, Kyle Maynard struggled to dress himself for the first time. On a normal day, his mother or siblings helped him pull on his shirt or zip up his pants, whatever it took to make the job go faster and not let Maynard feel like he was different.
Maynard was born with a congenital amputation that left his arms ending where his elbows would be and his legs stopping just above his knees.
It was this day, as Maynard sat in his room, his best friend and his friend’s mother waiting outside for him, that he was forced to dress himself while his own mother was attending an event for a sibling.
Using paperclips Maynard spent 30 minutes pulling his left sock on. He began to sweat. Then the right sock; even more sweat. His shirt. His pants. After a painstakingly long hour of using paperclips finally he had dressed himself; the only task not completed was the button on his pants. Maynard, drenched in sweat, realized the importance of learning to do things for himself.
He has since accomplished one of his biggest dreams. In 2009 he became the first quadruple amputee to fight in the Mixed Marshall Arts.
After about a year of negotiating fees with Maynard’s manager, Joey Leonardo, the date was set for him to come speak to the UVU student body on Thursday, March 24, 2011, according to Chairman Jeffrey Kahn of the Advisory Board for the Center of Advancement.
Over 100 students from UVU and Salt Lake flowed into the Grand Ballroom on campus to listen to Maynard as he relived many of his trials and accomplishments to prove to UVU that there are “no excuses” as his speech was titled.
“I saw the posters and thought it looked interesting,” said Tyler Mower, UVU senior. “It was a very good message and worth the time to come and hear it.”
Throughout his speech, Maynard stressed the importance of choosing for yourself, whether you are going to be a victim to your circumstance or not.
“We all have a disability or challenge to overcome. You can choose to allow these things to control your life or you can be in control and decide what you are going to do,” said Maynard.
Maynard grew up pressing through many trials. His father began training him to lift weights, starting with 2 ½ pounds and then entering him into wrestling matches.
Maynard hardly ever won. In fact, during his entire 6th grade year he lost every single match.
As a senior in high school, he soon was able to lift 240 pounds; and in 2009, he reached his highest weight with 420 pounds.
“I think it is always good to look in hindsight; like he said, ‘look back at the progress we have already made’,” said Becca Hutton, UVU sophomore.
Later when Maynard announced that he was going to step into a cage to fight, people wondered how a guy with no arms or legs was going to survive.
“A lot of people said terrible things,” Maynard said. “They said that I would be picked up and punted out of the cage. . . . I would be bloody and unconscious in 15 seconds. One person even said online, ‘Why don’t you get a chainsaw and come cut off my arms and legs so I can get some attention too?’”
Maynard had to learn to accept himself and ignore what other people thought of him. In doing so he developed the skills needed to become a New York Times best-selling author, a model, an entrepreneur, an athlete, a motivational speaker, and to train in power lifting and Ju Jitsu.
He has learned to write, type, lift weights, drive, and do what most everybody else can.
“Where we are right now things might be challenging. I guarantee there are excuses; but if you changed one of them, it would change everything,” said Maynard.
Life is about learning, he explained. It is about learning to grow, develop, and refine yourself.
Maynard has set a goal for September 2011, to get a team of people to climb with him 19,500 feet to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro.
“Anytime you begin something it is going to be hard; but once you gain momentum over that adversity, then it’s easy and the excuses become less relevant,” said Maynard.

To Do It All and Then Some

Riots erupted and chaos spread through the country. The trains were the only way out for two American teenagers, but they too were shutting down. Greece was falling apart with the two trapped inside. Running to the embassy, the teenagers argued with the officials that they needed to get out of the country. The embassy quickly put them on one of the last trains leaving just before they were locked in.
Traveling across Europe to Bulgaria and Hungary, Germany and England, Italy and Ireland, the two quickly learned that they must be cautious of the unknown territories that they were venturing into.
Romania surprised them when despite the lack of a common language they could feel that they were being followed. Eyes followed their bodies and lingered on their faces. Matters worsened when the realization hit that in Romania human trafficking is a problem.
“I probably would’ve been stolen 30 times if my brother wasn’t there,” said Liz Oakeson, junior at UVU.
European women are supposed to be timid, explained Oakeson, so when men followed her she looked them straight in the eye and told them to leave her alone, shocking them. It also helped that her brother, Isaac Reese, 19, stood over her with a trench coat to give the illusion that he was an assassin or hiding a gun, someone with the potential to kill.
“I spent four months in 19 different countries,” said Oakeson.
Although traveling to Europe taught Oakeson a lot about the world and life, it is the fact that she did it while managing a painful disability that makes her the extraordinary person that she is today.
Oakeson was born with Fibular Hemiophilia, a gene deformity. This deformity was the cause of a deletion of the fibula in Oakeson’s left leg and all but four bones in her left foot, creating a growth plate knee problem and hip problems.
“I was pretty much the guinea pig for the laser amputator,” said Oakeson. “It only took like 30 minutes.”
The ankle and foot were both amputated from Oakeson’s left leg.
Throughout the past 20 years, Oakeson has had a total of 28 surgeries, her first when she was just two hours old and 11 before she was 6 years old.
“[The deformity] accompanies a certain amount of pain,” said Kali Skidmore, past roommate of Oakeson’s. “It makes it hard to walk, climb stairs, or stand for long periods of time.”
The pain was described by Oakeson as feeling like the initial sting of stubbing your toe only it is constant.
Oakeson grew up through much teasing and ridicule, being told that she would never be normal. At that moment she decided that she could either be handicap and happy or handicap and sad, either way she would still be handicapped.
At age 12 Oakeson was told by her parents that she needed to follow the family tradition in learning a foreign language and figuring out where to go to experience life and the world on her own.
“I grew up with the expectation to go somewhere alone, with barely anything, and go figure it out,” said Oakeson.
Besides spending years learning Czech from the internet to be prepared for Europe, Oakeson has also managed to push through the pain of her deformity to enjoy the pleasures of life through dancing, occasional swimming, speech debate, and walking almost perfectly without a limp.
“She pushes through the pain and she does everything that other people do,” said Whitney Phister, past roommate of Oakeson’s. “She goes for her dreams and doesn’t take the little things for granted, like wearing high heels.”
Oakeson recently married Nephi Oakeson and, after being certified in social work at UVU, plans to move to the East Coast.
“I have learned that I can do anything,” said Oakeson. “Figure out what you want and make it something you think is impossible. Make it the biggest, craziest, thing possible, and go do it!”

"A Happy Accident"

A year and a half ago, Mallory Denison, a sophomore at UVU, had no idea that she would ever enjoy working out. She began going with her sister to a fitness class that focused on Latin dancing, taught by her sister’s best friend. This class is called Zumba Fitness.
At first Mallory didn’t love Zumba; in fact, she hated it, but she stuck with it based on the recommendation by her friends. Now at age 19, Mallory has fallen in love with the “party” that gets you to work your body while having fun.
Zumba is an “exhilarating, effective, easy-to-follow, Latin-inspired, calorie-burning dance fitness-party™ that’s moving millions of people toward joy and health,” according to Zumba Fitness.
Zumba Fitness focuses its workout program on learning different Latin American dances such as La Cumbia, Merengue, Samba, and Salsa.
Finally a workout program has been developed that is “super fun and works the whole body,” said Torina Moore, junior at UVU.
Alberto “Beto” Perez created the Zumba program in the mid-‘90s in Colombia when he spontaneously used Latin music in place of the traditional music to teach his aerobics class, according to Zumba Fitness. The class loved the energy that filled the room and Perez saw the future for the Zumba Fitness-Party.
“Zumba is something fun, a break. It doesn’t feel like a chore or that you are working out. You can just let loose,” said Hannah Loumeau Leonard, Zumba instructor at Ideal Shape in Orem.
The average age of people who attend Zumba is between 20 and 30 years old; however, there are people present at Zumba Fitness between the ages of 18 and 60 years old, said Leonard.
“I have been lifting and dieting and I haven’t been losing any weight, and now I finally am,” said Sharon Whipple, 51, after having been to six Zumba classes.
In the last 10 years the Zumba Fitness-Party has spread to over 110 countries where more than 10 million people are taking weekly classes in 90,000 different locations, said Zumba Fitness.
“It is a way to have fun and to feel better about myself. When you run you don’t feel sexy, but when you do Zumba you just feel cute about yourself,” said Mallory Denison.

The majority of Zumba students don’t dance and never have. Thinking that Zumba is solely for dancers is a huge misconception, said Leonard. Zumba is not for dancers; it’s for everyone.
“We aren’t here to be divas; we are here to burn calories!” goes Leonard’s motto.
UVU is offering an Aerobics/Zumba weekend class beginning on May 6, 2011, for 10 weeks, according to Deni Preston, UVU PE Fitness Coordinator.
“Don’t be afraid; it’s a big party for everyone. It doesn’t matter what you look like or what you are doing. No one really cares,” said Denison.