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After over one year of featuring inspiring athletes on Purpose2Play, I’ve been inspired enough to take on my own personal challenge. I will be participating in the 2015 Subaru Freeride Series, which is the country’s premier big mountain event for skiers and snowboarders.

This comes four years after my own snowboarding accident, which led to neck surgery and a cadaver bone taking the place of one of my discs.

It’s an honor to have Sports Illustrated publish my story, which Patti Putnicki took a keen interest in, and wanted to write about.

One year after the accident, I went back to the same location, and did a backflip on my board.

“Was I scared? Yes. But, I felt like I had to do it to prove I was still capable; I didn’t want to be my own roadblock,” she says. “For me, doing the backflip wasn’t any more dangerous than living with the fear or regret that would have come from not doing it. There is a certain rush to overcoming your fears and not surrendering to life.”

You can read the full version here.

Thank you to everyone who has been featured on Purpose2Play. You inspire me daily to say the least.