Before I get into the story and watch the trailer, I ask “what is #StrokeofGenius to you?”
20 years ago, when I was 11 years old, I suffered a brain aneurysm. My life, and those around me, changed forever. I couldn’t walk, talk, I didn’t even know what a salt shaker was for. I had to relearn everything, a rebirth some call it. Yet, I didn’t know I would be making an impact on other people 20 years later through finding the #StrokeofGenius in people and how they overcame traumatic events to live a fulfilled happy life.
In September, right after celebrating my 20th year of life, I met this wonderful woman named Tammy, who later I call “Wonder Woman” at an AT&T create-a-thon, a 24 hour film festival. She was inspired by my story and how I celebrated my 20th anniversary. We connected, exchanged info, shared stories, and I left early for I wasn’t going to enter the contest. Later than night, she emailed me, demanded a coffee meeting the next morning, because she wanted to submit a story about me to AT&T’s create-a-thon. The rest is history and kind of a little bit serendipitous. #StrokeofGenius was born. We won the AT&T create-a-thon, planned to find, create, and share other people’s #StrokeofGenius. We quickly raised close to $20,000, teamed up with Liam Alexander, and set out cross-country to find, create, and share stories to impact others. We planned to capture 5 stories across the nation. We came home with 9 amazing stories of people from all walks of life who suffered from traumatic experiences, and who are living fulfilled, happy, and now thriving lives.
After our journey, we have 3 more people to capture that we met along the way. This is much bigger than we ever thought. In the picture above, it’s me, reflecting over the Grand Canyon and how big the world actually is. How many people who have the #StrokeofGenius are thriving, in different cultures, with different medical opportunities, can we share so that people with similar traumatic experiences can have hope again? We all are connected in some way, half way around the world, to right next door. It takes a little disconnection to find the #StrokeofGenius to be able to find it in yourself to share with others.
It’s not about me, it’s about what we can do to enrich other people’s lives who have had a traumatic event by encouraging them “to not give up” and inspiring them to live a fulfilled and happy life from the unique success stories we capture. After 20 years from having a brain aneurysm, trials and tribulations, adversity, and how I have found my happiness, I hope to give back to people put in similar situations to impact millions of people with this special project. This is just the beginning. Because numerous people have already been touched by this movement, we are already planning to make this a year-around project.