Conquering Life’s Challenges After Tragedy

Don’t feel sorry for Travis Roy because he certainly isn’t wasting any time on the pity pot.

“I can still laugh, I can still cry. And, I can still enjoy all of the people around me. I ask you, what is more important than that?” Roy asked those gathered at Sacred Heart University’s Edgerton Center for the Performing Arts Monday night.

Moreover, Roy is optimistic that one day he will walk again.

As part of the university’s Student Life Lecture Series, Roy received a standing ovation after recounting events that led to his becoming a quadriplegic. The details of his miraculous story – both before and after his accident — are published in his book, “Eleven Seconds: A Story of Tragedy, Courage and Triumph,” co-written with E. M. Swift.

In October 1995, Roy triumphantly skated on the ice as part of Boston University’s Division One team. On the morning of his first collegiate ice hockey game, Roy described waking up and feeling “like it was Christmas.”

“I don’t think my feet touched the ground,” Roy said with a smile. Playing for the Terriers, under the tutelage of Coach Jack Parker, was truly a dream come true for a young man who, according to his website, started skating at 22 months old. Eleven seconds later, a player from the opposing team slammed Roy into the boards, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down.

Playing for Boston University was one of three goals that Roy had laid out for himself during his freshman year of high school. His other two dreams were to play for a National Hockey League team and to represent the United States on its Olympic ice hockey team. Calling these aspirations, “Part reality, part fantasy,” Roy worked hard academically and athletically during his four years of high school to make them come true.

“I loved sports,” he said. “There is nothing I enjoyed more than playing hockey. It was my thing. It was my high. It was my passion.”

And, although he sometimes sounded wistful — and he even admitted that he thinks about hockey every day — Roy never gave into self-pity and depression during his recovery. To outward appearances, it would seem as if his dreams were shattered by his accident. Roy, however, conveyed his inner strength and courage as he described for the audience how he learned to accept his challenges and create new goals.

“We have it in us to dig a little further and to find that inner spirit," Roy said. "Sometimes we don’t choose our challenges. This is the challenge that chose me. And, it’s what we do in facing those challenges that defines who we are.”

Roy explained that “one day at a time, taking 24 hours at a time,” he was able to find many things to appreciate about his circumstances. “I had so much to be thankful for, so many choices yet to make,” Roy said. “Believe it or not, it was hard not to be positive. There was such an outpouring of support. In my book, I call them the ‘angels.’ ”

Following his accident, Roy spent four months lying on his back in the hospital, mostly on a ventilator. For the first month, he was in and out of consciousness, he said.

“I immediately knew,” Roy said in discussing how he felt just after the accident. As he lay on the ice, as his father rushed toward him from the stands, Roy said that he intuitively knew something had happened. His father reportedly said, “Trav, get up. You have a hockey game to play.”

Roy had just told Parker that his neck hurt. “This was the moment that I had been waiting for my whole life,” Roy said. “I just remember being down on the ice and looking up at my father and saying, ‘But, Dad, I made it.’ ”

“No one could take that away from me,” he continued. “For those 11 seconds, I proved that this little kid from Maine had beaten the odds. At the same time, a challenge had chosen me and my goals would have to change.”

After spending time at an Atlanta rehabilitation center that specializes in spinal cord injuries, Roy returned to his family’s home. He had more goals to conquer, though. Roy wanted to obtain his college degree.

“I also wanted to be a productive part of society. I wanted to make a living and not be a burden on my family,” Roy noted.

And, Roy has been able to check those two goals off of his list. After returning to Boston University’s College of Communication less than a year after his accident, Roy received a degree in public relations. Roy is now a sought-after motivational speaker and activist, and he lives in a condominium in Boston. Roy also operates the Travis Roy Foundation which has provided more than $4 million for spinal injuries research.

When asked by an audience member about his current goals, Roy said that in 2005 he made a 10-year plan that included career and financial initiatives.

SHU student Jennifer Bero, 20, of Boston, said that she was inspired by Roy’s talk.  “I loved hearing about how his goals changed,” she said. Bero said that she also believes in setting personal and academic goals. This summer, for example, one of her dreams will be realized when she participates in an internship working with North Carolina State’s strength and conditioning and exercise coaches. An Exercise Science major, Bero hopes to one day pursue a career in this field.

Sean Elliott, an SHU sophomore from Guilford, was photographing Roy’s appearance for The Spectrum, the university's student-run newspaper. An ice hockey player in middle school, Elliott said Roy “shed a new light” on the sport. “It was a very inspirational story,” he said.

Although Adam Andexler, 20, of Enfield, was familiar with Roy because he had read his book “Eleven Seconds,” he, too, was struck by Roy’s positive outlook.

“He makes you feel that you could overcome anything that happens in your life,” Andexler said.