Name: The beautiful balance between courage and fear | Cara E. Yar Khan
Uploaded: 2020-04-06T07:57:48.000Z
Duration: 9 min 56 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Adverbs of manner

When we're young, we're innocently brave,

Modal verbs - B1

and we fearlessly dream about what our lives might be like.

Maybe you wanted to be an astronaut or a rocket scientist.

Maybe you dreamed of traveling to every continent.

I dreamed of working for the United Nations

in some of the most difficult countries in the world.

it doesn't just appear whenever we need it.

It's the result of tough reflection and real work,

involving the balance between fear and bravery.

And without courage, we'll never step into the unknown.

The balance of the two is where the magic lies,

and it's a balance we all deal with every day.

I began to experience a series of inexplicable falls.

I was diagnosed with a recessive genetic condition

called hereditary inclusion body myopathy,

It's a progressive muscle wasting disease

that affects all of my muscles from head to toe.

In the United States there are less than 200 people diagnosed.

To date, there is no proved treatment or cure,

When I was first diagnosed, everything changed.

because I had no experience with chronic illness or disabilities.

And I had no idea how the disease might progress.

and to change my expectations of what to expect from life.

"You should quit your international career."

was putting limitations on my dreams and ambitions

And I decided for myself not to have children.

And I continued my career with the United Nations

a country recovering from 27 years of brutal civil war.

until I officially declared my diagnosis to my employer.

that they would question my capacity to manage and I'd lose my job.

I was working in countries where polio had been common,

that they thought I might have survived polio,

even as basic tasks and functions became increasingly difficult.

Yet, I continued to pursue my dream of working all over the world,

and was even appointed as a disability focal point

where I served for two years after the devastating 2010 earthquake.

And then my work brought me to the United States.

And even as the disease progressed significantly

and I needed leg braces and a walker to get around,

I started dreaming of a grand outdoor adventure.

And what's more grand than the Grand Canyon?

Did you know that for every five million people who visit the Rim

only one percent go down to the canyon's base?

I wanted to be a part of that one percent.

The only thing is that the Grand Canyon isn't exactly accessible.

to get down the 5,000-foot descent of vertical loose terrain.

fear doesn't necessarily immediately set in

because I assume that one way or another,

Subtitles ListPlay Video

The beautiful balance between courage and fear | Cara E. Yar Khan

progress

journey

applause

fear