Overcome All Odds with Kijuan Amey

summary

In this episode of the Catapult Effect podcast, host Katie Wrigley interviews Kijuan Amey, a motivational speaker and Air Force veteran who shares his inspiring story of resilience following a life-changing motorcycle accident. Kijuan discusses the challenges he faced during his recovery, the importance of mental health, and how he transformed his adversity into a message of hope and empowerment for others. 

In this conversation, Kijuan Amey shares his incredible journey of resilience and recovery after a life-altering accident. He discusses the challenges he faced during his recovery, the importance of faith and support from loved ones, and how his military training instilled a sense of resilience in him. Kijuan emphasizes the significance of not giving up and controlling what one can in the face of adversity, offering valuable insights for anyone struggling with their own challenges.

takeaways

• Victim mode can disempower individuals and hinder personal growth.
• The motorcycle accident on May 5, 2017 led to a medically induced coma and numerous surgeries.
• Kijuan's recovery journey involved overcoming physical and emotional challenges.
• He highlights the importance of mental health support after traumatic events.
• He emphasizes the importance of human connection in healing.
• He encourages others to not give up and to control what they can.
• Kijuan's journey highlights the power of resilience and personal growth.

Where to connect with Kijuan

Website
LinkedIn
Facebook
Instagram

Buy his book - Don't Focus on Why Me: From Motorcycle Accident to Miracle

Resources

• Website
• Learn more about Cognomovement
• Try Cognomovement for yourself!
• Book a call with Katie

Credit: Tom Giovingo, Intro & Outro, Random Voice Guy, Professional ‘Cat‘ Herder

Mixed & Managed: JohnRavenscraft.com

Disclaimer: Katie is not a medical professional and she is not qualified to diagnose any conditions. The advice and information she gives is based on her own experience and research. It does not take the place of medical advice. Always consult a medical professional first before you try anything new.

Transcript

Katie Wrigley (00:01.176)
Welcome back to the Catapult Effect podcast. I am so excited to bring this guest that I have with me into the episode today. So he had reached out to me and I absolutely love his messaging and I know you will too. It actually goes hand in hand with the last episode about how to stop focusing on victim mode. So stay tuned, that is coming right up. Thank you again for joining me today.

I have with me Kijuan Amey, who is a motivational speaker, Air Force veteran, and founder of Amey Motivation LLC. Blinded in a 2017 accident, he inspires others through his story of resilience. With over 25 years of drumming, acting, and mentoring experience, Kijuan empowers audiences to overcome adversity and embrace their true potential. Welcome to the Catapult Effect podcast, Kijuan. I am so excited to have you on here today with me.

Kijuan Amey (00:56.546)
Thank you for having me on here, especially to tell my story because I feel everyone needs to hear it. And not just because it's me saying it, but because there's so much impact and things that can be taken away from it that can affect as well as benefit others.

Katie Wrigley (01:14.798)
Absolutely, I agree. And that's exactly why I wanted to have you on here. You know, when we get a diagnosis or we have a horrific accident, and we'll dive into your story here in a moment, but it can be.

really easy to slip into that victim mode and it stops us, it disempowers us and it prevents us from really shifting into what's possible for ourselves. So your messaging is just so in alignment with what I like to teach my own audience and clients as well. And yeah, absolutely thrilled to have you on to share today. Are you comfortable to talk about the accident? happened?

Kijuan Amey (01:51.658)
Absolutely.

Katie Wrigley (01:53.43)
All right, take it away.

Kijuan Amey (01:55.47)
All right, so as you mentioned already in the intro, this is back in 2017, May 5th, to be exact, but some might call Cinco de Mayo, I call my new life's journey. And on said day, I actually would be a reservist at this time. I had already did four years on active duty and I was so over the desk side of it. Just sitting in the office is not for me. I'm sorry. Even though I have to do it a lot now.

Katie Wrigley (02:02.743)
Mmm.

Katie Wrigley (02:21.357)
Mm-hmm.

Kijuan Amey (02:25.068)
because of mainly the pandemic, that they kind of shifted a lot of things to virtual and things of that nature. But I feel that that was never something that I wanted to do. I wasn't a desk guy. I grew up outdoors. As soon as I got done with my homework, I'm outside. I am gone until the streetlights come on, for those people who know what that means.

Katie Wrigley (02:54.662)
yes.

Kijuan Amey (02:54.702)
Yeah, and so me and my siblings, we were gone, you know, and as far as that day, you know, I would be on my motorcycle, but it would be because, you know, it was such an amazing, was a beautiful day. I live in North Carolina and in the spring, especially May, the heat is coming, you know, but it's not unbearable.

It's so nice. It's like eighties, seventies, eighties. Nice breeze. It's beautiful thing when it's in the spring. And so I pulled out my bike that day after having lunch. I'm pretty sure it was with my girlfriend at the time. I went and picked her up for lunch at her job, but I didn't take her on the bike because I didn't want her to come back smelling like the motorcycle.

Katie Wrigley (03:30.136)
Mm-hmm.

Katie Wrigley (03:49.474)
Hahaha

Kijuan Amey (03:50.284)
because she worked in IT and I was wanting to be respectful to the cubicle climate. And yes, I am aware that's one thing that the military taught me. And so anyway, I took her in my Dodge Charger and I don't know if you're catching a theme here. There are speedy cars and bikes and stuff.

Katie Wrigley (03:57.87)
Very kind of you.

Kijuan Amey (04:16.077)
But I was a gear head even growing up as a kid. I could tell you at night which car was coming down the road by the lights on it. And so me and my brother used to play that game, me and my oldest brother, what car is that? What car is that? But anyway, I would go to when I got back home anyway, I would go and get my motorcycle because I had to, well, I wanted to take a nap.

but it wasn't happening. My brain was still racing in the sense that I could not rest. And so instead of just lying in the bed, twisting and turning and flipping from one side to the other like a flapjack, I decided to get up and do work for my business. So Amey Motivation is not my first business. It's actually my second. My first was Kiwi Enterprise.

Katie Wrigley (05:07.48)
Hmm.

Kijuan Amey (05:10.574)
And this is where I would do website design and management, social media marketing and photography for small businesses and those alike. And the reason I say those alike is because this day, particularly May 5th, 2017, I was actually going to take photos for a church that I was a website manager, master, whatever you want to call it of, which would actually be my church. And so I was like, well, shoot, I'll go do that today since, you know, I don't have much else to do.

And I, you know, jumped on the bike because it was right down the street. was like maybe 10 minutes. The church from my apartment is maybe 10 minutes. And the reason I say maybe is because when you get on a motorcycle, straightaways become shorter ways. You know, they become shorter ways. And so I.

Katie Wrigley (05:46.488)
Mm-hmm.

Katie Wrigley (05:58.582)
Yeah.

Kijuan Amey (06:06.494)
get there no problem you know and I take these pictures beautiful pictures had to update the website because it was just out of date.

Well, I'll take those pictures and I'm like, I don't think I'm ready to take this bike home yet. I mean, literally just to pull the bike out, just to put it right back up. I think the bike would even get mad at me for that. You know what I mean? It's almost like you neglected a kid and you play for play with them for just a couple of minutes. Then you go back to doing whatever you want to do. Yeah, no, they're upset, you know? And so that's how I felt. So I go on and I was like, what? Where can I go?

Katie Wrigley (06:28.11)
Thanks

Katie Wrigley (06:39.8)
yeah.

Kijuan Amey (06:45.422)
to fulfill the need. And I said, I know. I can go to the lake. And there's this lake here in North Carolina called Jordan Lake, where I would always go and sit on this little, I guess you call it dog pier, whichever way you want to call it. But I would always go there. And this area particularly was free because I wasn't about to pay.

Katie Wrigley (06:58.072)
Mm-hmm.

Kijuan Amey (07:14.722)
to go to the lake for a hot literally like 30 minutes, maybe, maybe an hour. I don't remember the time lapse because I kind of zone out when I go to that place. I meditate and do all my little, you know, types of things there, but just to kind of get away and just still away. And I made it just fine. It's about a 30 minute ride from my church and I made it just fine. But when I was, when it was time for me to go,

And the reason I knew it was time for me to go is because a car would go flying by on the little freeway, highway, whatever you want to call it, there that was beside the lake where I was positioned anyway. And that's Highway 751 in North Carolina. It startled me because, like I told you, I was meditating, kind of zoned out. And I was like, oh, wait, what time is it? And so I look at my watch.

Katie Wrigley (07:57.24)
Mm-hmm.

Katie Wrigley (08:03.939)
Mm-hmm.

Kijuan Amey (08:12.682)
Because I always wore a wristwatch when I was in the military just to keep track of time That's a huge thing in the military knowing what time it is and so I Was like, shoot, I gotta go, you know get ready for work cuz I had to work that night for the military too and That was why I mentioned taking a nap earlier because I was gonna you know, take the nap to go to work. Well, I Took off on the bike and down 751 I go back towards Durham

Katie Wrigley (08:19.499)
yeah.

Katie Wrigley (08:41.838)
Mm-hmm.

Kijuan Amey (08:42.798)
So I'm like in between what we call Chatham County and Durham County, and where I'm riding right now. again, I cannot stress this enough, beautiful, gorgeous day.

And I'm listening to music in my headset because or helmet because I had a Bluetooth capability in it and it compared to my phone so I could listen to music or even like if I need a GPS answer phone, whatever. So I'm listening to music at this point and I'm pretty sure I was listening to some Bruno Mars because yeah, yeah, because that's when that was around the time that 24 karat Magic CD came out.

Katie Wrigley (09:23.607)
Nice.

Katie Wrigley (09:29.134)
Mm-hmm.

Kijuan Amey (09:30.734)
top charter very much so popular. Okay. Um, and so here I am right now in the street, listening to music, feeling amazing on this bike. You know, I, I, I, I'd only been riding for about three years, by the way, this is my, that would be my third year riding. Um, and so it wasn't like I was, you know, super experienced or nothing like that. I grew up riding dirt bikes.

Katie Wrigley (09:32.11)
Yeah.

Katie Wrigley (09:49.411)
Mm-hmm.

Kijuan Amey (09:59.832)
But again, this was literally on dirt, not in the street, you know? So I know how to ride, but now we're talking about street bikes. so anyway, there's Honda Accord from an intersection. And I have to kind of paint the picture here. At every intersection, every driveway, every, what was it? One convenience store, like a BP gas station. And then there was this produce farm.

Katie Wrigley (10:04.334)
Right, very different.

Katie Wrigley (10:10.466)
Mm-hmm.

Kijuan Amey (10:28.878)
In all of these sections or areas, they cut the trees back. reason they cut the trees back is because this is a two lane road that people are doing 55 miles on. 55 miles an hour on, you know? You don't want to just pull out in front of somebody and they're running 55 miles an hour. remember I just said there was a produce farm back there. That means semi trucks go back there on that road. You pull out in front of one of those running 55 miles an hour, you're going with it. It's not stopping.

Katie Wrigley (10:32.738)
Mm-hmm.

Katie Wrigley (10:38.702)
Katie Wrigley (10:55.863)
Yeah.

No. No.

Kijuan Amey (10:59.286)
You know, so, and I know that for sure because my, my great uncle, before he passed away, he used to own those. So I know those trucks don't just skrrt, hey, you can go on by. No, that's not how they do. You know, so, that's what I just wanted to paint that picture for you. Everything's cut back. Trees are cut back. So you can see, well, this Honda Accord, apparently the trees must've still been in his light because he couldn't see me. And he pulls out in front of me.

Katie Wrigley (11:11.991)
No.

Kijuan Amey (11:29.427)
And yes, I'm saying he because I do know it was a male from the police report. And.

I tell everybody I had three options. I could go right and go into the trees before I even got made it to him. I could go left and go into oncoming traffic. I don't wanna do that. Or I could do what my body ended up doing and that was freezing up and hitting him.

Katie Wrigley (11:51.199)
No.

Kijuan Amey (12:02.155)
Because when you go through these motorcycle courses, which I did, I took them because in the military, if you didn't, if you got in an accident, they didn't have to be liable to pay your bills. Yeah, if you didn't take these courses, because they had to sign off on all this stuff. These are now considered high risk activities. So you had to do all the class and safety stuff for it. So anyway,

Katie Wrigley (12:12.956)
wow.

Katie Wrigley (12:18.733)
Right.

Mm.

Kijuan Amey (12:31.434)
In these motorcycle courses, when you're doing all these little stunts and learning how to divvy and dabble and jank to the right, you're doing like parking lot speed.

Tell me in what parking lot you went 55 miles an hour.

Katie Wrigley (12:50.028)
This is a giant one when my parents were teaching us how to drive in snow. and I don't think we even got to 55. We got to lose the wheel. Probably not 55. No, not if we're learning to drive in the snow. So, right. So reaction time is greatly reduced with what you, yeah. And you had enough time to go, okay, option right into the trees. That's not going to end well. Option left and oncoming traffic. That's going to end even less well. It's best to just keep going this path.

Kijuan Amey (12:55.886)
But, but, I was about to say, but, were you doing 55? I doubt it. Because your parents would have been like, ah.

Kijuan Amey (13:18.431)
Yes.

Katie Wrigley (13:20.096)
and hope that I make it out.

Kijuan Amey (13:22.518)
Yeah, so my my brain took control of my body, which froze me up. I mean, I couldn't do nothing about it. So here I am. And again, upon impact, I remember nothing. So everything I tell you from here on out is from police reports, from people who were at the scene of the crime.

Katie Wrigley (13:28.974)
yeah.

Katie Wrigley (13:40.62)
Right?

Kijuan Amey (13:49.198)
or seen of the accident, I call it a crime because this is a crime to me. But the scene of the accident, because there were two cars behind this guy at the same intersection, get ready to use that area. And they said on the police report, they saw me coming. They don't know why he didn't.

Katie Wrigley (14:11.283)
Ugh. I'm getting chills. Ugh.

Kijuan Amey (14:14.786)
Yeah, yeah. So this just made it worse. You know what I mean? Because that means you're distracted now. And from what I really don't want to know.

Katie Wrigley (14:28.14)
I can only guess.

Kijuan Amey (14:29.486)
Right. But anywho, you know, I'm now in a hospital had to be life flighted because that's the only way literally probably the only way I was going to make it out that thing because I'm nowhere near a hospital where I was. I'm literally in the in some woods somewhere. You know, because when I say it's a highway with only two lanes, you tell me a highway with two lanes that

Katie Wrigley (14:38.766)
Mm.

Katie Wrigley (14:53.418)
Kijuan Amey (14:59.276)
That's like close to a lot of stuff. No, no, no, no, no, no. Exactly. Exactly. And so I had to get, they had to get the helicopter in there to even give me a chance. That was about 2 p.m. that day. And my family would not know until 10 p.m.

Katie Wrigley (15:01.335)
Not in the Durham Raleigh area, not at all. No. You've got four to six lanes when you're going through there, like, and each direction. Yeah. Yeah.

Katie Wrigley (15:17.475)
Yeah.

Kijuan Amey (15:28.556)
that night that I was in the ICU in critical condition.

Katie Wrigley (15:31.874)
Gosh.

Kijuan Amey (15:33.358)
Reason I have to say this, the reason that happened is because, and I need everybody to understand this, hear it clearly and please adhere to what I'm getting ready to I and military members alike can keep their address, if they're in the same state, think it is, keep the address that they previously were at and not be required to change it. And as far as like,

safety situations so you don't know where I am if you were to find my stuff. Now what that did for my accident though, I lived in Durham. My license showed that I lived in Goldsboro. Well, I don't know about anybody listening, but Goldsboro to Durham is an hour and 15 minutes one way.

Katie Wrigley (16:08.502)
Understood.

Katie Wrigley (16:29.197)
Wow.

Kijuan Amey (16:32.088)
So they are now looking for people to know me in Goldsboro, an hour and 15 minutes away from the scene of the crime.

Kijuan Amey (16:41.176)
Well, guess what happens when you don't see anybody there or know anybody that knows me there. Thankfully, that's where the base was. The base is in Goldsboro and literally the address that I used to live at, you can see the flight line to the base through the trees. Thankfully. And also in my wallet, I had my military ID, but thankfully you could see all that stuff. So I was very close to that base.

So they probably, you know, put two and two together and said, well, he's probably at this Air Force base is right here by this location. And they would, I think I'm actually more appreciative of it that way that it happened that way because they would find out that I was in the accident instead of being like, well, where is Kijuan? Why is he not here? Because like I told you, I had to work.

Katie Wrigley (17:32.973)
Right.

Kijuan Amey (17:34.39)
So with the officer going there, blah, blah, blah, he found out that it was the base that I was assigned to. Anyway, they, my chain of command would then reach out to my family.

Katie Wrigley (17:50.386)
man, yeah.

Kijuan Amey (17:53.834)
And you have children.

Katie Wrigley (17:56.618)
No, I have the animals, but...

Kijuan Amey (17:58.506)
Okay, okay, okay. Well, just imagine any loved one and you receive a phone call while you're grocery shopping at 10 o'clock at night with your spouse and it's saying your child, your loved one, whoever that's very, very close to you is in critical condition at the hospital.

Katie Wrigley (18:07.682)
Mm.

Katie Wrigley (18:22.065)
God, I'm full body chills again, QAnon. Oof. Awful. poor parents.

Kijuan Amey (18:23.992)
Yeah, this is what happened. This is what will happen.

Kijuan Amey (18:32.398)
And I write about all this stuff in my book. So I won't go too heavy into it because it is in the book. My book don't focus on why me from motorcycle accident to miracle. It is in that book. And I do go a little bit further into the details of how all that stuff unfolded. But just imagine a mother getting that phone call that her child was in an accident like that.

Katie Wrigley (18:57.582)
Yes.

Kijuan Amey (19:00.472)
She is almost like she just went blank because she took off running first off And my stepdad was like wait, where you good? You know, he he has no idea. All he knows she answered the phone Said hello Bob. Yes, that's my son. Okay day she took off running

Katie Wrigley (19:02.818)
Yeah.

Katie Wrigley (19:19.394)
Yeah. my God.

Kijuan Amey (19:20.642)
Wait, wait, where we going? You know, and so it was such a moment of disbelief. You know, you don't want it to be real. You know, I mean, to this day, there are moments I still go to mental therapy, you know, all these different things.

Kijuan Amey (19:45.234)
But moving forward to June the 6th, why am I fast forwarding? I'm glad you asked. Because I was in a medically induced coma for a month.

Katie Wrigley (19:53.131)
Yeah

my gosh.

Kijuan Amey (20:00.93)
while they did countless surgeries on me literally from head all the way down to my right foot.

in every section of my body from head to midsection to both legs and my right foot. Yes.

Katie Wrigley (20:16.845)
and you lost 32 days of your life.

Kijuan Amey (20:19.586)
Yeah, only things I did not have surgery on were my arms and my hands. That's it.

Katie Wrigley (20:24.76)
That's incredible that any part of you, I mean, you're impacting with a sedan at 55 miles an hour without any time to stop and you don't have a steel cage around you of another car. Like hitting another car like that would be injury enough with blunt trauma, but you didn't have that. And I'm guessing since you don't know point of impact, you probably hit the back of it, flew over the top and broke the crap out of your body among other things.

Kijuan Amey (20:52.622)
E?

I'll put it like this. I have two metal plates in my head.

Katie Wrigley (20:59.519)
Oof.

Kijuan Amey (21:01.452)
And that's to reconstruct my face because it was crushed in and I had on a full face helmet.

So yes, it was really, really bad. The fact that I'm even talking to you, because people thought all the physical therapists, the doctors every day, they thought once I came out of that coma, there wasn't gonna be any much communication. They didn't think there was gonna be much communication. They thought it was gonna be, well, you're just gonna have to take care of him for the rest of your life. you'll probably have to feed him, do whatever you can. Hey, man.

I'm doing everything.

that I can without eyesight.

The only things I wish I could be running and jumping and doing is getting in a car. I'll tell you right now, I wish I could go jump in a car right now and go refuel those airplanes like I used to in the Air Force because that's what I did in the military. I was an in-flight refueling specialist, which means you refuel planes in midair. Yes, yes. So can you imagine how devastating this blow was to me?

Katie Wrigley (21:51.368)
Yeah

Katie Wrigley (22:05.525)
how cool!

Kijuan Amey (22:15.074)
You know, I can't see these amazing cool things, amazingly cool things that I used to do and used to be, I mean, I took so much. I don't know if could, if pride is the correct word, but I definitely took honor and commitment, dedication into all that I was doing in the military and outside of the military as well, the business, but it was.

Katie Wrigley (22:33.932)
Right.

Kijuan Amey (22:41.582)
You can't do that job unless you're in the Air Force. Let me preface that first. Yeah.

Katie Wrigley (22:48.398)
So I want to pause briefly and just kind of highlight where we are in the story right now. So your poor mom gets this call at 10 o'clock at night. It's 32 days, 32 days before she knows whether you're going to be okay or not. Because you still haven't woken up, that you don't know what the state's going to be. And then of course, I'm sure there was recovery time before you started to speak. And not to mention how amazing I would not have known had you not said it, that speech was impacted. And from the work I do with Cognitive Movement,

Kijuan Amey (23:01.922)
Right.

Katie Wrigley (23:17.816)
get the amount of work that you've done. is absolutely incredible that there's no sign in your voice that that would have never been, that never would have been on my list of things to guess had been infected, even though, you know, smashing in your face, it would make sense. And I'm guessing that's what took your eyesight as well.

but then you had this career in the military, you're doing stuff for the church, you're enjoying your girlfriend, you're enjoying biking, like all these things that depend on vision to do and they're all taken away from you. Not to mention missing 32 days of your life.

Kijuan Amey (23:56.334)
I said this on another podcast. I said, yeah, I'm still trying to find those those that month of my life I miss I mean I said I could probably go back to the hospital and find it but I don't want to I'm sure I'm sure it's in those medical records that says you were in surgery at this point in time you're a surgeon at this point in time I don't want to find it Because that's all it was it was a bunch of surgery surgery recovery surgery recovery surgery recovery. That's all it was

Katie Wrigley (24:06.782)
Yeah, right? Yeah, those would have been painful days.

Katie Wrigley (24:18.444)
Wow. Wow.

Kijuan Amey (24:26.978)
The whole month.

Katie Wrigley (24:29.292)
Wow. And then how long was it once you woke up before they actually released you from the hospital? my gosh.

Kijuan Amey (24:35.882)
Another month. So July 7th was my discharge date. Now, if you're a betting person, let's do some numbers here. May 5th, five five. June 6th was the day I woke up, six six. July 7th was the day I got discharged, seven seven. Yeah. I can't make this stuff up.

Katie Wrigley (24:51.127)
Ooh.

Katie Wrigley (25:03.192)
Dang.

Kijuan Amey (25:04.278)
And my birthday? Are you ready for this?

November 22nd, 1122.

Katie Wrigley (25:12.15)
Repetitive numbers are a thing for you, Kijuan. Dang. Yeah. Wow.

Kijuan Amey (25:13.582)
Apparently. and by the way, today, right now, as I speak, I'm 33. I'm just saying, I'm just saying. You know, so if you wanna, if you're a betting person, all I'm missing is four four right now to fill in that gap. So yeah.

Katie Wrigley (25:24.015)
my gosh.

Katie Wrigley (25:34.584)
Yeah.

Katie Wrigley (25:41.262)
Wow, so that means, okay, so if you're 33 now, that means that you were seven years ago, you were only 26. 25.

Kijuan Amey (25:49.806)
25 because I'll be it'll be eight. It'll be eight years tomorrow. I mean Jesus not tomorrow next month. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's okay. It's okay. Next next month. We'll make it eight years.

Katie Wrigley (25:54.414)
Oh gosh, yeah, I'm in the wrong. Sorry, yeah, 25. Wow.

Katie Wrigley (26:04.878)
Yeah, and that's another piece of the enormity of the accent is like how many 25 year olds do you know that have their life changed that drastically? On a whim, let alone turning it from the why me into.

major resilience and being able to craft another business around your level of resilience and what you've learned. So how did you start to come back and how did you shift from why me into what you're doing now and not feel clearly not feeling sorry for yourself at all and instead using what you learn to help motivate other people.

Kijuan Amey (26:49.23)
I've got three things that I can give you. First one, my faith, because I am a believer. I truly believe if it wasn't for my faith, I would not be here. Because when I tell you every doctor that worked on me didn't count me in, it was like a knockout punch is what they thought this was. We're in the ring, he is out cool, that's it.

Katie Wrigley (26:54.968)
Mm-hmm.

Kijuan Amey (27:18.498)
Go ahead and count them out.

And I know this because I spoke to one of them face to face.

As a follow-up appointment, was after I got discharged from the hospital. This was not while I was still in. This was going to a clinic and seeing them. This was the doctor who did my spinal cord surgery.

when he came into the office.

He said, he had a student with him first off. He said, wow. And I was like, what happened? And I was looking around the room. I'm like, what happened? He said, I just didn't, I didn't expect you to be sitting up on this bed. I was like, well, what did you expect? He said, I honestly thought you were gonna be in a wheelchair.

Kijuan Amey (28:09.39)
And I said, huh. I said, well, I'll do you one better. And he's like, what was that? I said, you want me to stand up for you? Cause listen, when I tell you I broke both of my legs to include my femur, that's the largest bone in your body, which is in your thigh. Exactly. I broke that. So snapped it completely in half to the point where it was out of my leg. Yes.

Katie Wrigley (28:33.677)
Oh, compound fracture. Oh, I used to skydive, so I'm very familiar with gnarly, high impact injuries.

Kijuan Amey (28:40.954)
Yes, so when I tell you this man when I stood up I said I Stuck my chest out he was like wow You know it but it's it's that and then you have My my my support system my family friends everybody that came listen when I tell you so many people that was coming to see me at that hospital that literally the hospital

Katie Wrigley (28:47.822)
Hahaha, Superman!

Kijuan Amey (29:10.552)
The people on staff were like, this is crazy. Like we've never seen someone have so much support. Like it's always like every day and all throughout the day, not just in the morning, not just in the middle of the day, even through the night, they come visit him.

They were talking about it. Like literally I was a topic of conversation, not just because of my accident. Trust me, they remembered me because of the accident, because I did go back and revisit. I did go back and revisit after my accident, like I got discharged. I went back to revisit because there were a couple of people I was just a little bit nasty to when I was in the hospital and I went to go and apologize. And so...

Katie Wrigley (29:38.466)
Right.

Katie Wrigley (29:55.534)
Kijuan Amey (29:58.286)
When I went back on that floor, that seventh floor, that was the rehab floor. I don't know if it still is, but it was the seventh floor when I was there. When I went back on that floor and I got off that elevator and I was walking toward that desk, somebody was like, and I was like, what the heck just happened? My mom said, she remembers you. was like, oh, who is it? And she said their name. I was like, I don't know her by name. I was like, ugh.

Katie Wrigley (30:19.221)
Yeah.

Kijuan Amey (30:27.694)
I guess she was the one that was always at the desk when I would call. She was like, probably. And she was like, oh my God, you look amazing. And I was like, well, thank you. I didn't go to the gym. No. And she was like, oh, you're still that same funny person that you were. And I was like, yeah. And speaking of being funny, I want to come and.

Katie Wrigley (30:41.412)
Yeah.

Kijuan Amey (30:54.638)
Say hello to some people that I was here with last She was like who are you talking about? And I told her physical therapist the occupational therapist the the head nurse like I wanted to talk to all of them and She was like well the head nurse. I can't remember his name a boo. I think it was he he wasn't there He was he that was his day off. That was the only reason he wasn't there and then the guy who was my occupational therapist

Katie Wrigley (31:13.538)
Mm-hmm.

Kijuan Amey (31:23.146)
I came on the perfect week because the next week he was going to be retiring.

Katie Wrigley (31:28.737)
wow. Yeah.

Kijuan Amey (31:29.282)
So it like, it was like perfect timing. And so any who she's like, I'll be back. And she runs and grabs everybody that I was there with. And then even some of the nurses, Hey, you guys remember that guy? And every, I will not tell you people are just popping out of rooms, even though they were tending to other patients, they're just popping out of the room. my, it is so amazing. And then

Katie Wrigley (31:53.483)
yeah.

Kijuan Amey (31:58.764)
I'm hugging people, hugging people, talking to people. And then the one person that I was the most, like probably the rudest to, and it was just because of some of the things she would say to me as far as like how she would have me doing stuff. She comes and I hear her walking, but I don't hear her saying anything.

Katie Wrigley (32:11.651)
Mm-hmm.

Kijuan Amey (32:21.902)
And then she finally speaks. She's like, hi, Kijuan. I said, hello, is that who I think it is? She says, who do you think it is? And I said, is that that mean physical therapist I used to have? And she says, come here. She hugs me. And when I tell you she was bawling, I mean, her tears falling. And I was like, I just wanted to tell you.

Katie Wrigley (32:36.27)
you

Kijuan Amey (32:51.352)
that I am so sorry. She was like, you did not have to come back here for that. And I was like, yes, I did for me, not for you, for me. And it was like, I mean, when I tell you it was a moment, I didn't even want to leave. I was like, hey, so what patient we got now? yeah, listen, I was all in mind too at the time, I'm telling you. But so that was the second.

part of it. The third part I would say is the military and how they instilled the resilience side of it in me. When I tell you I had to fight back. Listen, that's like the understatement of the year of the century. You know, like what the heck I had to literally fight back because and I keep adjusting myself in this chair as you can see is because my back, my spinal cord, it does not like to be sitting up like this.

Katie Wrigley (33:30.094)
Yeah. That's a statements. It really is like...

Kijuan Amey (33:49.208)
for a long period of time and not having the aid that it needs because this cushion is not the most comfortable. But anyway, I, with the resilience side, I mean, I had to, I had to fight back. I had to tell people that, yeah, you guys see the smile, man, but I'm gonna be honest, it's not easy. When I started smiling, it's because I see y'all.

It's because y'all visit me. I need that. And I tell people all the time, I'm like, when y'all kept coming to the hospital, that was like the highlight of my day. Why? it was because I got to tell y'all, explain to y'all, whatever it was that I did that day. I was happy to tell, ooh, guess what I did today? I got to walk all the way down to parallel bars and back. yeah, it was me. I did it. Woo woo.

You know what I mean? And so I'm getting to tell them all. said, one time I almost messed up the machine. So I was in the wheelchair and it's a tricep push down machine that you bag the wheelchair into. And so I'm in there and he's like, what am I gonna put this weight on today? Let's see if you can do this weight. He's like, go ahead. And I'm like, what is it on? He's like, I don't want you to know. I just want you to do it. I said, all right.

Katie Wrigley (34:48.726)
Nice.

Katie Wrigley (35:00.878)
huh.

Katie Wrigley (35:15.245)
you

Kijuan Amey (35:17.09)
And when you tell me that, I'm thinking you're going really heavy. So I pushed down hard. I said,

The machine almost flipped over. I said, see, you should have told me that's your fault, not mine. I'm just saying. And so then I look over at the desk. I said, it's his fault, not mine. But yeah, you know, I was just, I was so happy and just, you know, loving, explaining to people what I was doing because it not only was it fulfilling to tell people, but it was actually healing me.

Katie Wrigley (35:30.048)
my gosh.

Katie Wrigley (35:38.185)
Yeah.

Katie Wrigley (35:56.024)
Yeah.

Kijuan Amey (35:57.42)
You know, so yeah, those are the three things I would say.

Katie Wrigley (36:00.802)
Wow, and I'm so impressed by you, Kijuan. And I totally, for anybody who's watching, totally teared up more than once. Like when you were talking about the human connection, like I talk about this so much, like this is what life is about. It is about connecting to other people. It is about allowing yourself to be vulnerable. Not that you allowed yourself, you wound up any vulnerable position and people helped you come back, but that support, that love and that belief in a higher power.

And then not to mention the military training and obviously you highly respected it because you went through everything that they required of you for them to sign off on the high risk activities. And thank goodness you did because it would probably would have been another whole layer of stress and issues to be able to cover all the medical bills if the VA wasn't helping to cover it for you.

Kijuan Amey (36:53.144)
Well, know, you know, with the medical, because I did not go to a VA hospital or a military hospital. I was at UNC hospital in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. That's where I got life flighted to. So these hospital bills were all from a outside source and what we would say. So.

Katie Wrigley (37:00.878)
Yeah.

Katie Wrigley (37:08.226)
Hello.

Kijuan Amey (37:21.24)
Say hello first off to a million dollar man. That would be me. Yeah, that would be me. I just broke the million dollar barrier and literally just went over with my dental bill. It made me over a million dollars. That was a part of my lawsuit. Since he was at fault, this is your fault. Look, all of it. You will accept all responsibility, sir.

Katie Wrigley (37:23.884)
He was going to say those had to be in the seven digits.

Katie Wrigley (37:35.406)
day.

Katie Wrigley (37:45.535)
Yeah.

Kijuan Amey (37:51.52)
And so, yeah, that was part of it. And thankfully so, because I mean, yeah, I got insurance money, I'm like, to me, that's not enough. Like he completely changed my life. I feel like he owes me a house. Yeah.

Katie Wrigley (38:05.677)
Yeah.

Katie Wrigley (38:10.21)
Yeah, the medical bills are just part of it. You're right. Like he completely altered the course of your life that day by not paying attention and cutting you off in traffic and not giving you a chance to you. And if two other cars were behind him to be able to see, like clearly he just wasn't all there.

Kijuan Amey (38:24.824)
Mm-hmm.

Kijuan Amey (38:31.512)
COMPLETE NEGLET

Katie Wrigley (38:34.049)
Yeah, and that someone should be held accountable for that because it's not like you skinned your knee. It's not like you got up and raged at him. You were down for the count in a hospital for two months, one of it in a coma. And how many years of rehab did it take you? And I'm guessing like, I'm assuming that you're probably still doing physical therapy at this point to continue to strengthen the body, no? Wow.

Kijuan Amey (38:39.5)
No.

Kijuan Amey (38:59.246)
My physical therapy is more of a, I guess you could say, me just wanting to be strong. I go to the gym on my own. don't do physical therapy anymore. I finished physical therapy like my first year. I was back walking on my own without like, without even a support cane.

Katie Wrigley (39:08.267)
next

I'm so impressed. I'm even more impressed.

Katie Wrigley (39:19.746)
Wow.

Kijuan Amey (39:27.628)
I keep forgetting that. Hold on. Let me think. So June, July, August, September, October, five months.

without a support K? Yeah. I mean, don't get me wrong. I was, I had a mean limp, but I was still on my own. It does. It does. And, and the other thing is I, I wasn't taking this easy. Like I knew the, the uphill battle that I faced. So it wasn't like a, I don't feel like doing this today. No, no, no. I'm doing it. I'll give you a prime example.

Katie Wrigley (39:37.219)
Wow.

Katie Wrigley (39:45.417)
Yep. Hey, that matters.

Katie Wrigley (39:57.347)
Right.

Kijuan Amey (40:06.062)
I don't know why or where this fever came from, but my physical therapist had came. This is when I was doing in-home health therapy at this point. My physical therapist came that day and I just didn't, feel right for some reason. I didn't know why because you know, I hadn't talked to him yet or seen him yet. So when he finally did get there, I think he got there about 10, 10 AM somewhere around there, nine or 10 in the morning and he's usually when he used to come. And so,

He comes in the room and he's like, Hey man, what's going on? You usually, you know, got a little bit more going on here than what you, what I see right now, far as what dressed being dressed. And I said, I don't know, man. I just feel weird. And I, and I couldn't muster up the energy. He said, okay. well lay down. Cause I want you, since you don't have the energy, I don't need you sitting up right now. I said, okay. So I lay it back down. He did the vital signs. They took my blood pressure. Blood pressure was fine.

Katie Wrigley (40:45.198)
Mm-hmm.

Kijuan Amey (41:04.737)
Then he took my temperature and it was higher than normal. I said, huh? And so he was like, let me, he said, let me take it one more time. I said, okay. And so he took it again, same number. It wasn't like a hundred, it was like 99 something. And so he's like, I've never had your temperature be that high. It's always at 98.6. Like you're like the perfect human almost.

Katie Wrigley (41:17.902)
you

Katie Wrigley (41:24.334)
Mm-hmm.

Katie Wrigley (41:33.406)
you

Kijuan Amey (41:34.016)
Every time I come in here, it's always the same. So the fact that it's at 99 point anything, I don't like that. And he's like, I think we're gonna call it a day. I said, wait, what? We're gonna do what? He's like, yeah, man, I can't because I don't want anything to happen to you, first off. And secondly, I wouldn't feel comfortable. And so when I tell you I was upset,

because of a fever. Like you don't understand when it comes to me working out. my gosh. That is my favorite thing to do. I don't know. Whenever something affects my workout, whether it's, it got canceled due to anything, either, even if I'm hurt in some way, somehow if I'm hurt, I, and I, and I have to make that sound decision, wise decision to cancel.

Katie Wrigley (42:02.612)
Yes.

Katie Wrigley (42:27.096)
Mm-hmm.

Kijuan Amey (42:30.414)
It bothers me because I feel like, man, I think you can do it. I feel like you could press through, but at the same sense, you gotta be like, hey man, if you don't cut it out, we ain't gonna be able to work out. know? So yeah, I had to make an adult decision to be like, okay, whatever.

Katie Wrigley (42:42.178)
Yep. Yep. man.

Katie Wrigley (42:50.478)
This has been so amazing. Thank you for sharing your story. one, want, we'll make sure we have all the links in the show notes so that people can follow you, reach out to you. There's so much that you can teach people about resilience. And as we wrap, Kijuan, for that person who may be struggling with chronic pain or some sort of really

negative, scary diagnosis or is just fighting to shift from that why me into resilience. What would you say to that person today? What's one piece of advice you would want to give them?

Kijuan Amey (43:33.358)
Two things, the first one is easy. And when I say easy, I mean like easy to say, not easy to do. The first one is don't give up. That's the first one. And then, and I speak from experience, I didn't give up and I'm still continuing to fight. The second one is control what you can control.

Katie Wrigley (43:43.086)
Mm-hmm.

Katie Wrigley (43:56.494)
yeah.

Kijuan Amey (43:58.594)
because I can't tell that doctor to say, don't say I got cancer. Don't you say it. I can't tell that doctor to say, you don't have traumatic brain injury. I can't tell him to do that because I do. But what I can control is how I deal with it.

Katie Wrigley (44:16.548)
yeah.

Kijuan Amey (44:18.114)
How I take it on? Do I take it on and say, my life is over. I can't do nothing else. My family go hate me. No. Or do I stand up and say, I'm going to fight this thing to the end. It's going to be me and you in the ring now.

Katie Wrigley (44:33.166)
Thanks

Kijuan Amey (44:34.102)
Not tomorrow, not in a couple of years, right now.

Katie Wrigley (44:40.184)
beautiful.

Kijuan Amey (44:40.492)
And so that's what we have to do.

Katie Wrigley (44:45.314)
Thank you. I love that. That's such a great note to end on. And that's when you look at the science behind resilience, behind willpower, behind building confidence in ourselves, it's...

the discipline, the knowledge, the awareness to do it no matter how you feel and to do it today. Much to your point. Thank you so much, Kijuan. And I'll make sure you can reach Kijuan at amymotivation.com. again, I'm going to make sure all of the links that Kijuan has given me are in the show notes. You can reach out to him social media, buy his book so you can hear more.

about his story here and Kijuan thank you so so much for spending time with us today.

Kijuan Amey (45:31.178)
You're welcome.

Katie Wrigley (45:33.022)
And to anybody listening, take his words to heart, please don't give up and control what you can control. You can't control what happened to you, but you can control what you do with it. And on that note, I wish you all to please be well until next time. Take care.

Kijuan Amey (45:44.429)
is right.