- My name is Jesi Stracham.

I'm the director of Wheel With Me Foundation.

[upbeat music] I live in Iron Station, North Carolina, and I have lived here for 12 years.

[upbeat music] Let go of fear and let go of judgment.

The worst thing that can happen to you is that you're gonna fail and failure is, that's where the lesson is and it can always be fixed.

If you mess something up, we can always fix it.

[upbeat music] [heartfelt soul music] I was raised to believe that you treat others with kindness and compassion.

We don't know the struggle that someone else is going through so we should probably just be kind.

Lead with love.

Lead with your heart and share that compassion and kindness with others because it goes such a long way.

Again, we don't know what people are going through.

[sniffles] I'm like crying so I have a runny nose.

[laughing] [sighs] January 2021 will be six years that I've been paralyzed.

I was a passenger on a motorcycle and a woman was looking at her GPS and made a U-turn in front of us.

So the driver of the bike went through her back window, breaking his leg.

I went over her SUV, breaking my back in two places.

[upbeat music] Had you asked me six years ago if I would be where I am right now, I wouldn't be able to answer the question.

I was so scared.

I went 22 years walking, using the restroom on my own.

I worked for an orthodontist, had a great job.

I was happy.

I mean, I was a party animal, but who isn't at 22, right?

And this injury just stopped me and saved me, really.

It saved me from continuing down that road, continuing that cycle and it taught me the importance of self-love.

It taught me the importance of gratitude.

It has conditioned and empowered my faith.

When I think about being paralyzed for six years, I get emotional, but not because I'm sad, but just because I'm proud of the woman that I've become because of the spinal cord injury.

Mm-kay, so these little wheels get hair in them and then they stop rolling and so I have to clean 'em out every few days, or every few weeks.

I've been really bad about it recently.

Oh, there's money in there.

I had no idea.

How 'bout that?

Oh, so much hair.

My routine is key.

I wake up every morning.

I have a moment to myself.

I spend every single night looking at my vision board really feeling where I wanna be in my future.

I work out every day.

I have a diet.

I stick to it.

I wake up every morning around five, so I have certain aspects of my day that definitely are consistent, and I just have to stick to that to keep my mental health where it needs to be and to really just stay in my zone.

[ropes thwacking] I once took a risk in letting go of every idea that I thought I knew about life [laughing] and just allowed myself to be.

Something I learned way too late in life is that others' judgment of us really has no power over us unless we let it, so don't let others run your life.

Don't let others determine the way that you live your life.

I would like to run for government one day and really, truly be the change that I wanna see.

And I really just, I wanna help people see what's truly available to them before tragedy happens in their life.

It took my spinal cord injury for me to really open my eyes and realize how much is available to me and how powerful I am as an individual, which brings me back to gratitude and why I'm so grateful that this injury has happened to me, because it truly has opened my eyes to so much.

And if we are willing to open our mind to what's available to us, that's the good life.

And that's what my spinal cord injury did for me.

- [Narrator] "PBS American Portrait" is- - A platform where- - People can go to in order to share their experiences.

- [Man] I took a risk when- - When I was 18 and joined the Marine Corps- - And it's been an amazing journey ever since.

- This project can help bring us together- - To understand what it really means to be an American.

- So join in- - Go to PBS- - Dot org- - Slash American Portrait.

- Join us and be a part of history.

[peaceful violin music]