Michael Spivey
City
- Spring Valley
I am a medically retired MarineCorps, Combat Engineer. With combat deployments to both Iraq and Afghanistan. On December 10th, 2010, I was blown up while sweeping for IEDs on foot patrol. During the explosion, massive amounts of shrapnel struck my lower back, hamstrings, and glutes, as well as my left forearm, which was later amputated.
After Being medically retired from the Marine Corps, my ambition was to start a hotrod shop with two other veterans. The dream was starting to take shape when tragedy struck in 2014. We tragically lost my dad, my grandpa, brother-in-law, and my longest known friend, all within a few months of each other. That year we also lost about a dozen of our fellow service members and good friends to suicide. Unfortunately, with all the funeral travel, I lost the shop we were working on building. I poured all of my life savings investing in that shop, and now it was all gone.
My depression escalated, and daily suicidal thoughts became a scary reality with the upcoming anniversaries of the twenty-five marines we lost during our Afghanistan deployment. Rather than give in to the voices, I decided to try and clear my head. I packed a bag and my snowboard and headed to the mountains. When I got there, I met up with a couple of fellow veterans who were training and competing in snowboarding. When the time came for them to travel to the next competition, their coach asked me if I wanted to go. I had no other plans or direction for my life, so I joined them to see what it was all about. It was early on in the season, so I continued riding and racing with them for the rest of that season. The following season, I returned with a positive mindset and a much better outlook on life, and the new goal of competing in the 2018 Paralympics. Three years later, I made the team and was in South Korea at the 2018 Winter Paralympic Games, where I placed 18th on the world stage in my division. During my training, I grew more confident in my sport, myself, and life. I started dating a beautiful woman, Kris and had the confidence to make her my wife that year.
