Being a Paralympian Hunter is already an inspiration; standing up to his bullies and being bigger than them made him an even better one. The Paralympian had to get his legs amputated when he was just one month away from completing a year of his birth, and what followed in his early years was bullying. “That was a really tough time for me,” he recalls. Perhaps that is why when this kid came up to him to seek advice over getting teased, the 26-year-old couldn’t help but let the kid know his superpower.
“It’s going to be what you change the world with, right? So you’ve got to be proud of being different,” told the American track and field athlete to the kid. Hunter was interacting with the fans at the Tara Davis Invitational when a kid came up to him and sought advice, to which the Paralympian pointed out that “Everything they’re making fun of you for, anything they’re pointing out about you, when you get older, it’s going to be your superpower.” This superpower is also what he believed the change would come from.
Hunter told the kid to be proud of what he was citing, “You’ve got to be proud of looking different, doing things different, because that’s what makes a difference in the world, right?” And we all how small words can have a great effect on kids, right? It makes them want to change themselves to fit in, to be someone else. Well, Hunter made sure that it didn’t happen to this one; he said, “You’re exactly who you need to be, so don’t feel like you need to be anybody else but yourself, all right?”
But the best advice did come up in the last, “Forget those kids, man. Don’t worry about them.”
The story is developing…
The post Bullied for Disability, Paralympic Gold Medalist Hunter Woodhall Opens Up on Handling Teasing: “You’ve Got to Be Proud” appeared first on EssentiallySports.
