I Am Limitless by David Garcia

David Garcia 

By David Garcia

Hello! My name is David Garcia. I am a Colombian-American sixth year chemistry PhD student at Brown University. I am set to defend my thesis this upcoming April and graduate in May. I was born with Moebius syndrome with defects to my abducens nerve limiting the peripheral movement of my eyes. I was also born with partial hands and no feet. As you know too well, it doesn't end here and soon I will face the real world. While my intention was to pursue a job in biotech, this summer I had a life-changing experience during a trip to Paris. 

I had always dreamed of going to Paris, and this summer, my dream came to fruition. I was ready to experience many memorable events like eating delicious food, tasting exquisite wine, and seeing beautiful world landmarks. What I didn’t expect was for a few French words to change the trajectory of my life. It all occurred at a very unlikely place, the Champs Elysee metro stop. Heatheran, my close friend and agent, and I had arrived at our stop. We stepped out of the train and began walking toward the exit. As we were exiting, I noticed a mother and her son walking toward us. After taking a closer look, I realized that the boy had a debilitating limp that made it difficult to walk. “You are not alone,” I thought to myself. Difficulty walking was something I was very familiar with. I greeted them with a smile and said, “Bonjour”. The mother responded, “Bonjour.” The boy looked up but quickly and shyly looked away. As I passed them, I heard his mother say in French, “Did you see that guy? Did you see his hands? He has a disability just like you, and he looked so confident and happy.” Initially, I didn’t think too hard about what she said, but then my mind started to run and it hit me. For the majority of my life I felt like I was constantly battling the world. It was David versus the preconceptions of society. I felt an insatiable desire to prove to everyone that I was capable of anything. I felt confused not seeing any disabled people in positions of success. I felt aimless without a disabled role model to look up to. I felt isolated in the struggle against Moebius syndrome.

I often remember the exchange I had with the mother and her son by the metro... I remember the mother’s smile. I remember her son’s low self-esteem, timidity, and uncertainty. I was that boy twenty years ago. Since then, I have learned from my experiences which enable me to place trust in myself and my vision. A vision designed to defy and shatter all societal preconceptions of people with disabilities. I now know what I am destined to do in this world and my purpose in life...

It is to share my successes and struggles.
It is to motivate people to be relentless in the pursuit of their dreams.
It is to inspire those who were told they can’t be great.
It is to be limitless.    

As such, I have decided to pursue a career as a motivational speaker, model, and ambassador for people with disabilities. To begin, I grouped a team of my closest friends at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and founded David Garcia Limitless (DGL) on June 28, 2019. On October 26th of the same year, I held a small event at Brown and launched DGL. At the launch, I screened a video that my team and I made to get my story out there. The following day, I released the video on social media platforms Facebook, Instagram and Youtube. I encourage you to watch the video below.

If you would like to contact me with any feedback or questions, send me a message on my social media accounts. Search for and like David Garcia Limitless on Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube. Thank you all for taking the time to read my story. 

Ask The Adaptive Athlete Returns With Rugby Player David Garcia

This story appeared in our 2020 CCA E-Network. David Garcia had just graduated from Brown University with a doctorate in chemistry. His next challenge was to start training for the 2024 Paralympic games as a rugby player. Read his story here reposted for your inspiration during CAM2021. 

 

“Adapt...persevere: because you are limitless.”

David Garcia, newly-minted doctor of chemistry from Brown University, is here to remind you that anything and everything is possible. He believes he holds the “blueprint of success for people with disabilities.” He challenges us and asks, “What is your excuse?”

David was born with Moebius syndrome, partial upper limbs, and no feet. He is the oldest of five born into a first-generation, Colombian immigrant family, living in New Jersey.  In his own words, nothing has ever held him back. In May 2020, he successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis in chemistry. Next up, he is training for the 2024 Paralympics. 

Life became easier for David once he accepted his body. There were moments of doubt, and plenty of questions from others like “what is wrong with your feet and hands?” David says, he “remembers the moment when the universe presented him with two options: to be consumed with self-pity or the second, to face my reality, accept my disability with all its challenges and refuse to be defeated.” Through the encouragement of lived experiences and a loving family he continues to preserve, to take every moment of adversity as an opportunity to grow. 

At age five, while surrounded by the bright lights and sharp tools in the operating room, enduring surgeries to improve the function of his eyes, mouth, and left hand, David realized that his “life was extraordinary” and he “had to be brave in the face of adversity.” 

He says, “Those surgeries, without a doubt, made me stronger and provided me with the courage to accept my reality.” 

As a child and teen, David says, “Every single step was a struggle. From the moment I could walk with my little prosthetics every step was a fight, a fight I learned to embrace.” He also struggled to accept his appearance. One day while putting on his prosthetics, he told himself “in order to play futbol, run, and have fun, I would have to put on my prosthetics everyday for the rest of my life.” While David has never looked back, each day was a struggle he had to overcome, mentally and physically. 

As early as elementary school and middle school David refused to be treated differently and rejected help from well-intentioned occupational and physical therapists. David says, “I taught myself to write with two hands, play fútbol with prosthetics, and perform in a band with soul.” During a trip to the beach as a child, he fondly remembers his mother telling him, “‘Davidcito, take off your prosthetics, enjoy your life, and jump into the water! Who cares if people stare at you?” Ultimately, she was right… “No one cares... but at that age it was difficult for me to share the same vision,” he recounts.

Now he can look back and realize these were seminal moments in his life. He muses, “I still feel insecure about my disability. Today, the difference is that I have learned to express self-love and embrace all my imperfections unapologetically. I have learned through self-reflection that my limb difference is not a weakness, but rather a shield that has given me the strength to forge my own path. I have learned that I am limitless.”

Today, David trains four to five times a week for one and half to two hours varying his workouts, alternating among the many muscle groups throughout the body with special attention to chest, biceps, triceps, shoulders, and abdominals. He begins with a lengthy warm up that includes stretching, 50 pushups, 10 pull ups, and 5 to 10 minutes of cardio. He concludes with more cardio and stretching after focusing on that day’s strength training.

For those interested in starting or continuing an exercise routine, David encourages that you define your goal by asking yourself “What am I looking to achieve? Then, once that is decided, you develop a fitness and nutritional plan that works for your body. The most important thing is to stick with your plan and see it through till you meet your goal.” 

Commitment to the cause is vital in this adaptive athlete’s opinion. A big piece of motivation may come from your past, remembering what you went through and overcame as a child. David says he was “empowered by my past successes, I never give up and [I] stay true to my vision. I remember the challenges I overcame, learning how to write with a pencil, learning how to shoot a basketball, learning how to ride a bike.” All of these successes were possible because he chose to adapt and persevere.

As you can see, in order to excel and work out at an elite level, a bulletproof mindset is required. David’s focus on how to adapt and preserve to meet his physical fitness goals also helped his mind become more nimble, too. Choosing to lift weights, play rugby, and just move is a powerful outlet for feelings of insecurity and powerlessness.  

“Exercising was always the key to keeping my stress and anxiety levels low. In fact, the less I exercised the more disordered my life was, and the more anxious I felt. So overall, exercise is crucial for maintaining my mind at equilibrium.” 

His next challenge will be training for the 2024 Paralympic Games as a wheelchair rugby player. He was recruited by his home country of Colombia to participate and compete for an olympic medal. David says he looks “forward to representing Colombia in the Paralympics and in the International World Cup tournaments during the next 4 years.” In between workouts, and rugby practice, David is pursuing motivational speaking and modeling in order to share his story with a broader audience. David also supports Positive Exposure, a New York-based nonprofit founded by award-winning photographer Rick Guidotti, that “is committed to creating opportunities to empower, support and embrace our disability community as well as all individuals and communities at risk of stigma, discrimination and exclusion.” As a member of the action committee, he is a living ambassador of their motto, “Change how you see, see how you change.”

Read more about David Garcia, his journey to acceptance, and why he wants to share his Moebius syndrome story with us on the blog at http://www.ccakidsblog.org/search?q=david+garcia (https://tinyurl.com/y9yqxly6)

Please follow David on Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube at @davidgarcialimitless.