EXTRA **** -- "Walking to the Impossible" by Andrew Justvig

We join Andrew in BYU Radio Studio 7, a medium-small rectangular room with wooden floors. A mic in the center is surrounded by a semicircle of a dozen or so chairs occupied by Sam Payne, Jacob Pierce, and a group of Andrew’s friends and loved ones, invited by Andrew to join the performance. Andrew stands and we check the levels on the microphone. His voice and body are both animated and he instantly draws the audience in by his warm presence and kind gaze. He begins: How long can you hold your breath? Thirty Seconds? A Minute? What about eight hours? That’s my record. The Umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck three times when I was born. My brother in law said I was bungee jumping from the womb. “I’m sorry to tell you, but your boy has cerebral palsy. He may not walk, talk- do not expect him to live a normal life.“ How would you like it if a doctor said that about your baby boy? And from the first few years, he was prophetic. I couldn’t walk. Good luck understanding me. But the one thing everyone knew about me was I loved Disney! Whenever we went to Disneyland I would sob when we would leave because I believed I was home. In fact, the only reason I knew how to crawl was so I could press the rewind button on the VCR so I could watch “Disneyland fun” over again. Now my grandpa, “Papa John,” he saw this and he was fed up. He saw me in therapy for hours- physical, speech, and occupational. And for what? To have his grandson lay on the floor and watch mickey mouse all day? Uh uh. Not his grandson. So he pulled out his bribery techniques he used on my uncles.  “Andrewski- you listen to papa. You walk one step without any help, and papa will buy you any video of Disney you want.”  “Okay!”  So he picked me up. My feet were turned in. My knees were bent. I didn’t have good balance. But I wanted that disney video. So I held my breath and took a step. And I got it. And then it was two steps a video, five steps, ten, twenty, one hundred steps!  My Grandma had to shut off the ponzi scheme because she was losing her retirement. But I had all of these Disney movies.  You know, something happens when you hear that. You know - “When you Wish Upon a Star - A Dream is A Wish Your Heart Makes - Bippity Boppity Boo - The Bear Necessities - You can fly! You can fly! You can fly!” Something happens when you hear that over and over, again and again and again. You begin to believe it. I became an independent walker. I ran in the track meet, I did debate, I danced in the musical. I became an eagle scout.  But then, I achieved the ultimate dream. I became a cast member at Walt Disney world. I was working in a magic place with pirates and ghosts and tiki birds that sang, and a castle- Cinderella’s castle. I was in a magic place, and I wanted everyone to know that. As I helped people buy their Mickey ears and their Goofy hat and their wendy doll, I would tell them,  “Have a magical day! Have a magical day! Have a magical day!” But did they get it? Tinkerbell - the Fairy Godmother - Peter Pan - Mary Poppins - Mickey Mouse - They were real.  As I said goodbye to the guests one night, waving to them with my mickey glove, a young man in a motorized wheelchair drove up. He looked at me. He got up, his feet were turned in, his knees were bent, he didn’t have a lot of balance. He had cerebral palsy - like me.  “Do you work here,” he said. “Yeah, I do.” “My dream is to work at Disney. Do you think I can make it?”  I looked at where we were standing. “Here, magic lives, and here, dreams come true.” \*Applause\*