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Katie suffered a traumatic injury in 2010 - on her birthday. She now deals with the constraints of C7 quadraplegia. Katie talks about the choice she made to move forward cheerfully, how she has accepted a life quest she would never have chosen, and why she is grateful for her challenges.
Join Derek Hudson as he explores Essential Dynamics, a framework for approaching the challenges facing people and organizations. Consider your Quest!
Wow. That guitar riff is tiring. Hello again. I'm Reed McColm, your handsome host, and this is Essential Dynamics in which I discuss the philosophies of life with my dear friend, mister Derek Hudson. Derek, are you there today?
Derek:Hey, Reed. I'm here. We're still remote, still by Zoom, but you're looking great, and I'm super excited about our guest today.
Reed:Yes. I am too. I think she's terrific and I'm looking forward to the conversation we're going to have. So why don't we get into it? Derek, why don't you introduce who we have here in the studio?
Derek:So today, we're pleased to spend some time with Katie Burgess. I met Katie eight years ago. And one of the things that Katie and I have in common is that we both lived in Korea. And so, Katie, 오늘 한국말로 할까요?
Katie:Oh, dear. I feel like you know more Korean than me even though I was there most recently.
Derek:So, yeah, we don't have to do that, and it's terrible, and we might even have to correct my grammar and what I just said, which was should we speak Korean. Katie, why don't you just tell us a little bit about yourself because you've, at a young age, had some really interesting and challenging experiences.
Katie:Sure, Derek. So in 02/2010, I guess what you what is unique about me is that, in in 02/2010, I was, injured in a quad accident and and suffered a a spinal cord injury that diagnosed me as a c seven quadriplegic. So a quadriplegic, that means that four areas of my body are are impacted. So my legs, my trunk, and also my arms. And often, I think people see me, and they think I look like a paraplegic, but I do have parts of my arms and parts of my hands that that you can kind of see a little bit on Zoom and you've seen me in person that that are paralyzed.
Katie:So paralyzed kind of from from the the chest down, and that was a very life changing experience. I mean, I was used to before walking, and being very active. My injury took place when I was 23 years old. So I was in the middle of my university studies and had about just a year to finish up there. And and so I think I don't wanna lead into your next question, but I do think you're gonna ask me what interests me about essential dynamics.
Katie:And I think this idea of a quest and everyone having a quest because I feel like this life changing experience for me really really caused me to reflect and think about my quest in life and how this new constraint and new challenge, would allow me to to move forward and still continue on my quest.
Derek:Well, Katie, thanks for picking all that up. You you read the cheat sheet well, and I there's so much I wanna talk about. But before we get into it, I just wanna ask you about the title of your blog.
Katie:Sure. So the title of my blog is all things cheerfully. This is a motto that I've kind of developed over the years. And I think some people, when they think about being cheerful, they think about having a smile on your face all the time, a painted smile no matter what's going on. I'm a pretty positive person, so I do smile a lot.
Katie:But I think being cheerful is a lot more than just being positive. It's being, open and receptive to new opportunities, and being open to moving forward in life despite your circumstances or what other constraints may may be in your way. And that's really how I define, being being cheerful. And, I I'm not a % cheerful all the time. I do have moments where I struggle and where I grieve, the loss of being able to walk.
Katie:But I do think that this, injury that I have and living with this disability has helped me to be able to grow in new ways and to be open to new opportunities. And that's how I live my motto of kind of doing all things cheerfully that are within my power. And and so far, it's worked out fairly well.
Derek:Well, you're you're doing very well. You're a fantastic person. We can feel your positivity. Can you tell me one one of the things that I this the things that I've learned about the quest is I've kind of studied this idea is that the real quests come to us as a call. And it's so, you know, a lot of times, you know, we're talking about find your why, find your purpose.
Derek:And it's kind of internal and we get to pick. But I think that the real meaningful quests, that's certainly the case in literature, are when the protagonist would happily just stay in the Shire. And and they get called to do something hard. And so tell us about your quest. And and when you figured out maybe you didn't have the language of a quest then, but when did you figure out that you'd been given a a particular calling in your life that you weren't expecting?
Katie:Right. So I'll go back to when I was injured, I spent about five and a half months, in the hospital. It was a very difficult and challenging time, and I learned how to be independent. And after I got out of the hospital, I had to figure out how to move forward in my life living with this disability. And I won't go into this that much, but it did take a lot of, grieving to to come to the reality that that this is it, and I had a a choice to make here.
Katie:So one of the first things I did to move forward and to navigate this this new challenge was to to get back into my studies, and my first goal was to finish my university degree. I had six classes left and a full time practicum to finish. I was able to finish the six classes part time. The most daunting task for me was this full time practicum of four months as I had never worked in an agency or workplace with my disability. And I had a lot of questions and concerns about how I was going to work.
Katie:And the interesting part is, as I mentioned, I was a physical education student. I had been building up skills my entire life, physical skills, to be able to, move forward in my life with my career. And I was now sitting here with what I thought as zero skills. Zero zero skills. Zero strengths.
Katie:And, how it worked with the practicum is they would offer you they would show you a number of different opportunities available to you. And I looked at all of those, and I could not find anything that I felt matched what I could do now. And I really had to sit back and take a strengths inventory of what I could bring to the table now. And I don't think I did it all on my own. I think, I relied on kind of family and friends to say, you you know what?
Katie:You have a voice. You can talk to people. You can listen to people. Within those six classes, I had the opportunity to take a counseling course, and I really enjoyed advising and doing counseling. And my practicum adviser, I said to her, do you have something in advising or counseling?
Katie:I can talk to people. I can listen to people. I think I can do this. And bless her heart to this day. I she she found me a a placement within the university that kind of has launched my career in in student advising and and student services.
Katie:And, that was really when I started my quest and was able to to figure out what I could do. And I think something that people would say about me is that she listens well. She has empathy towards others. And those are skills and strengths that I can offer now and have been a driving motivator for me to continue moving forward in life despite the constraints I have with living with this disability. And that one choice in practicum to look at my strengths in a in a different way and reframe the situation has led me to so many opportunities that I would have never guessed, looking back, you know, ten, eleven years ago for that.
Reed:So, Katie, if I may jump in here, how long did it take you to finish your degree, and what kind of things do you do now?
Katie:Yeah. So the six classes, I started out with one online class to really get back into things, and I thought, k. I can do one class. I'm back in the studies mindset. And then I took kind of three classes, and finished off the the last, two to finish the the six.
Katie:And I think it took about a year and a half to to two years, to to finish that degree and those courses. And then, once I was in the practicum you know, it's very interesting. My placement coordinator told me after. So I was offered a a job right in that same at the registrar's office at at the University of Alberta. I was offered a a job right away.
Katie:And out of all the practicum students, I was one of the few that found work immediately after. And since then, I started work as a student adviser, in in student services and, worked my way up to be a supervisor, which, I I really enjoyed, helping kind of take using my life and experience as a microcosm to kind of help others within their roles as well. So a majority of my experience for the last ten years has been leading leading teams in in the student services field.
Derek:And and you whipped off a master's degree in there somewhere as well.
Katie:I did. So I I came out with this physical education degree, which is not even related to what I'm doing, and I thought, I'm ready to learn more. And, really, I wanted to learn more about people and adults. So my master's degree is in adult learning, community and higher education, and I wanted to learn more how adults learn. And and to be honest, you'll ask me what I learned during that master's degree, and I think I can boil it down to adults are messy.
Katie:People are messy. Everyone has a story and a background. And, really, it just kind of comes down to when you're leading and working with other people, helping them identify their strengths, really listening to them and understanding what they're going through and and being empathetic to their situation and finding out what their quest is in life and helping them get there. And that's kind of been my experience in the last while that has driven me on my path and, you know, helps me wake wake up in the morning.
Derek:That's fantastic. Now, Reid, does this sound familiar? Are we being we being smoldered Yes.
Reed:We certainly are. I think this example of somebody having a determined outlook despite the difficulty of the quest is right up our alley, so to speak. I am particularly struck with the constraints that you must have faced. You probably had a lot more physical restraints that I can't even imagine. How do you avoid?
Reed:Well, I am a fully able-bodied person. You may have recognized me from my pursuits as Mr. America. But I have depression, it seems to strike for no reason at all. You, if I may be so bold, I think would have plenty of reason to succumb to depression at times because the challenges you face are so great.
Reed:How do you deal with that, and how do you stay on track for yourself?
Katie:You know what? Because I am so positive, often I don't share a lot of the constraints and what is going on in that part of, my life. But I do have times where it is very hard and challenging for me, and I kind of doubt the quest. Right? You know?
Katie:Am I making a difference? I feel like I'm doing very small things. Is that really making a difference? And what I do during those times is I do allow myself to to grieve to take the time to to grieve the loss of my legs and walking. And, you know, sometimes I'll I'll look allow myself to look back on some pictures and some things of what I used to do before, but I do not allow myself to dwell on that for too long.
Katie:I'm very fortunate that I am able to pull myself out of that headspace and recognize that when I get into that. And I understand that that is not something that that everyone, is able to do, and I've just been, blessed with that ability to be able to pull myself out a lot, quicker. But having said that, I am driven by you know, one of my top two strengths is helping to work on my weaknesses, and so I'm driven by this quest to improve myself daily. And so that motivates me to to keep going and and to to do that as well. And my second one is achievement, and I do like achieving things and and moving forward in spite of the constraints and kind of proving to myself that that I can do things.
Katie:But there there have been some really difficult and and challenging times, and I do just make sure that I allow myself the time to to to grieve that and try and reframe the the situation too so that I can still move forward while allowing myself also to process and and grieve when when I need to.
Derek:That's that's fantastic. Katie, you said something earlier on that I wanna pursue a little bit more because I think you said that your accident and the subsequent challenges has allowed you to grow in ways that you couldn't otherwise have grown. And so you talk about grieving the loss of a life that you had. But yet, let let find out whether you feel like you're doing things that you wouldn't have otherwise been able to done if this hadn't been your path.
Katie:I do think my accident has helped to redirect my life in a very positive direction and in a direction I would have never thought to go. Just the placement of where I have been and the timing of things and the opportunities has placed so many growth opportunities. As you mentioned, before my a couple weeks before my accident, I was sitting on a bench. I remember this outside my apartment building, and I was feeling a little bit lost in my quest. And it's interesting how a couple weeks later, my accident happened.
Katie:And in that, I found my quest within that within this challenge, I have found my quest, and I asked myself, would I go back to the bench? Yes. I would go back to the bench so I could walk again. Would I go back to the bench to pursue that quest? I don't think so.
Katie:And I think this is the quest I really feel I was meant to to go on and the opportunities I was meant to have. And I would have never grown in working with people as much as I have in in this quest.
Reed:So, Katie, what has been I apologize for bringing this back to something less profound than the struggle that you were describing. But we are talking about essential dynamics, and you are familiar with what Derek has laid out as a philosophy. And I wonder what you would add to it, because you have indeed been to the top of the mountain and deposited a ring there. And it was my precious, by the way. But I did wonder what you would do you think we're missing something in this in this discussion?
Katie:I'm not sure if it's missing, but something I would add is the I appreciate the role of mentorship in my life, of mentors and leaders before me who have seen my strengths and seen my abilities and have given me opportunities to to grow. I think that we can recognize along the path the role of people who have helped us redirect in directions that are most helpful towards our purpose and our quest. And I mentioned that practicum coordinator at the very beginning. Throughout my journey as a leader, I have had so many great mentors and leaders who have helped to provide me with feedback and helped me to grow and present new opportunities towards towards that quest. And I try and do that as a leader as well with with others.
Katie:And so I think taking our opportunities that we've had and trying to create that for someone else and really help them along their mission too?
Derek:Hey, Reid. Thanks for asking that question. That's fantastic. The hero's journey, which I've studied a little bit, always has a mentor. And I think there's some more thought that that I need to give to that.
Derek:But the other part of it, Katie, is you're you're picking up is, while on your quest, you're mentoring other people. So a question I thought of before Reid asked the best question of the day was, whose life is better because you're pursuing this path? And are there any even specific examples without, you know, divulging confidences of people?
Reed:No. Go ahead. Name this. Yes.
Katie:I you know, that's been interesting. I recently transitioned to a new role within the university, but it has given me an opportunity to reflect on my time with my team that I previously had. And I I do think, looking back, I think sometimes we don't give ourselves enough credit for the influences that we have in other people's lives. And we think they are small things, but at the end of the day, they they're they're huge. One thing that I always strive to do, and I recall a a few people I I worked with who told me about their quest and and where they wanted to be, and we worked through, you know, how can we get there with professional development plans, opportunities for for your growth, and we are able to to build that into their plan.
Katie:And I've seen them move on, and succeed in in their quest, and I think that's very motivating, when we approach things from a perspective that we can help each other and be collaborative in this quest. And we're we're each fulfilling our own kind of quest here, but they are all interlocking with with each other. And I've really appreciated those who've been on their quest and had an influence in in my life too. And I I I've never really thought about it in that way until you kinda ask that that question now.
Reed:Katie, thank you so much for sharing your story with us today. Obviously, you are a sad and glum person, and I certainly appreciate everything you've had to share. Unfortunately, that's about the end of our time today. But I would like to invite you back perhaps to discuss more advanced experiences with our philosophy. I say our because I have been significant in shaping Derek's really very infantile thoughts.
Reed:And so Katie, please tell us, if people wanna know more about you, where do they where can they find you?
Katie:Right. So I do have a a blog. I I haven't written in it recently, but I should get back to it. But it does tell my story and gives my background, and I think would would be interesting for people to look at. So it is allthingscheerfully.com.
Katie:And from there, you can find more ways to contact me too.
Reed:That's great. You know, that that's I'm I'm remembering now my novel, The Cheerful Undertaker, which is probably referenced on your blog. Please make sure people go to that. Derek, where can people find you?
Derek:People can find me at derekhudson.ca and, certainly interested in any conversations we can have about the Quest. Now in conclusion, I just would like to say a couple of things. Katie 감사합니!, 잘 했어요 And she has to say something back in Korean before we end.
Derek:화이팅!. Okay. There we go. That's awesome. That's that's an English word they appropriated.
Derek:She said fighting. Katie Katie, thanks so much. One of the things I thought is was, you know, if you're having a bad day, think about how much harder your day would be if you couldn't walk. But I think that if you're having a bad day, talk to Katie and it doesn't that stuff doesn't even come up because you just you just radiate positivity and you're legit because you've decided that that's how you're gonna live and you're an inspiration. So thank you very
Reed:much. Yes, indeed.
Katie:And thank you for having me today.
Reed:And we look forward to seeing you again and wish you the very best in all your travels. For Derek Hudson, for Katie Burgess, our wonderful guest, and Bryn Griffiths in the studio, I'm Reed McColm reminding you to consider your quest.