I was born in Los Angeles, California on August 10th 1987. I graduated from Burbank High School in June 2005. I was born with a passion for music and the outdoors. As a kid, it was impossible to get me to stay inside the house. I was always outside skateboarding, biking or just causing trouble. When I was forced to stay inside I spent the majority of my time playing guitar, piano or listening to music.

When I was 16 I began hiking, I don’t know what it was but this really awakened something within me. The feeling I would get summiting a mountain after miles of suffering is indescribable. I was hooked, it fed the demon in me that always felt the need to be moving. I was hiking around 40 miles a week, mostly in the local San Gabriel Mountains but frequently going north to the Sierra Nevada mountains.

What happened on May 26th 2018 would change my life forever. It was the weekend, I had planned to take the train to a comedy club in Hollywood. As I was waiting at the station to transfer trains, I fell onto the track, hit my head and was knocked unconscious for 11 minutes before getting hit by a train. I woke up in the hospital not knowing where I was or what had happened. I was in a hellish dreamlike state of mind, I thought I was being tortured in some sort of experimental medical facility.

When the doctors explained to me what had happened and that my legs had to be amputated, I thought that I was either in hell or dreaming. I ripped out my IV’s and tried getting out of bed and fell straight on my face. My inability to comprehend my situation forced the medical staff to strap me to my bed further imprisoning me in what I thought was hell. Slowly, I came to understand that this was my new reality.

When I realized what had happened, I was devastated. I thought my life was over and I wanted to give up. Life just wasn't worth living anymore. 2 Months after my accident, The Heroes Project walked into my room and gave me hope for the first time. They told me that in less than a year I could climb an 18,000 foot mountain if I put the work in and trusted them through the process. I thought they were high on drugs, or maybe I was, but I accepted the challenge that they put in front of me. On August 10, 2019, I summited Mt. Elbrus (18,510 feet) just one year after losing both of my legs.