"I'm Jarem Frye. I'm a cancer survivor, i'm an athlete, i'm an innovator, and i'm a Mormon."

The other night I decided to browse around on Mormon.org to see what kind of interesting stories I could find about my fellow "Mormons" (members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints). You know how sometimes they feature certain peoples' profiles on there who have a particularly interesting story, and they make a little video about them and show these on the home page of the web-site? Well, when I got the site, I went ahead and decided to watch the featured video and read the profile that popped up. It ended up being this story, which you should definitely go watch/read yourself. It is a really inspiring story. Anywho, after watching this guy's video and reading his profile, I just knew this guy had to be a blue note on my blog. 

Blue Note #1
Name: Jarem Frye
Why He's Noteworthy:
This guy is amazing! He was diagnosed with bone cancer when he was 14 years old and, when presented with several options, and from those he chose to have his leg amputated above the knee. Rather than feel sorry for himself and let this get him down, he chose to live life to its fullest. He is one of those who was told that he would not be able to do all the same things again, but chose not to accept that, and instead, worked on finding a way to make it so he could do everything he wanted to do. He ended up designing his own prosthetic leg which made it so he could walk, bike ride, mountain climb, and do just about whatever else you can think of. From there, he went on to start his own business designing and manufacturing prosthetics/products that allow amputees like him to be able to do things like skiing, biking, wakeboarding, etc. 

I think it is awesome how he was able to take a circumstance in his life that would make so many people depressed and/or bitter, and look at it as a way for him to learn and grow and become a better person, and as a way/inspiration for him to help other people with similar afflictions. Also, rather than blame God for what happened to him, or asking "why me?", he was able to put things into perspective and use this experience as a way to grow closer and gain more trust in God. He said, "Every aspect of my life has been a blessing from God! I believe that He has endless blessings for all of us. Some are disguised as challenges and many are difficult to recognize as blessings, but with His help, and just a little bit of faith on our part, blessings we never would have imagined are available to us" as well as, "sounds crazy, but I am thankful for it. I am grateful to be and amputee. I love it." 

On more thing he said as part of his Testimony, and that I really like, partly because I feel the same way, and because I think it fits in with the theme of this blog is, "The question is not 'should we do what makes us happy?' but rather, 'what is true happiness and what truly makes us most happy?' I feel like I have the answers to both those questions and that is both comforting and exciting all at once!"
You should be sure to read his mission story that he told on there. It's pretty amazing. Also I love his pirate peg leg costume! That's so fun!