“Heart transplant recipients can not only lead completely normal lives.

I was born with a well-hidden challenge: Left Ventricular Non-Compaction Cardiomyopathy and a malformed heart that never worked properly.

As a child, it was clear I couldn’t keep up with the other kids, but I didn’t receive my diagnosis until my mid-30s. In many ways, the diagnosis set me free. I finally understood I wasn’t lazy or unmotivated, despite what I’d often been told by authority figures and even loved ones. In reality, because my body was receiving substantially less oxygen than everyone else’s, I was working harder than most people just to show up.

But I also knew that end-stage heart failure — and possibly a heart transplant — were likely in my future.

And I was right.

At 51, I went into end-stage heart failure. At 52, I received a new heart from a kind stranger.

Many people see surviving a heart transplant as the Finish Line. For me, it became the Starting Line.

When I opened my eyes in the ICU, I realized I wasn’t simply waking up with a new heart. I was waking up with an entirely new perspective. Lying in that hospital bed, feeling genuinely good for the first time in my life, I understood that I could make anything out of this race that my new heart desired.

And after a lifetime of being left behind physically, it desired a lot.

So I made a promise to my Donor and their family: This new heart and I would go everywhere and do everything and I would give it the kind of life any parent would want for their child.

Since then, I’ve been busy fulfilling that promise.

I’ve lost 50 pounds and gotten fit. I’ve sung and danced across multiple stages. I’ve hiked more than 1,000 high-elevation miles in the Rocky Mountains. I’ve traveled to Kenya and Uganda to experience elephants, rhinos, big cats, and the critically endangered mountain gorillas. I’ve learned to run and completed the world’s highest-elevation half marathon. Most importantly, I’ve laughed deeply, loved fiercely, and fully lived this second life I was given.

It’s incredible what becomes possible with a fully functioning heart — and the determination not to waste a single moment of the life you’ve been given.

That’s what I hope to share with you.

Because as it turns out, you don’t need an actual heart transplant to have a change of heart.

If you’re struggling to find your own resilience… if you can’t yet see past the challenges in your life… if you’re tired of your life living you instead of the other way around…

Walk with me.

You may not realize it yet, but you are standing at your own Starting Line.

And you, too, can make of this race whatever your heart desires.