Growing up, the weirdest thing for me was seeing other people’s dads wearing shorts. It wasn’t so much the shorts in themselves, rather it was the fact that protruding from the bottoms of the shorts were two perfectly normal flesh-covered legs. That in itself sounds pretty weird, but let me back up and explain myself.

In 1987, at the age of 21, my dad lost his left leg from about six inches below the knee and down when a car backing out of a driveway hit him as he was riding past on his motorcycle. My dad went up and over the car, but his leg was not so lucky, and got pinned between the car and his bike and had to be amputated. In the most literal sense of the term, my dad is technically disabled, but not having a leg has never stopped him from doing anything—he bikes, swims, plays soccer, roller-blades, and snowboards just as well as anyone with two legs.

Back to my opening statement; seeing other kid’s dads who had two legs was the weirdest thing for me because my normal was a guy who had one leg. There was absolutely nothing strange about the fact that my dad took off one of his legs in the evenings, or even the fact that he had a leg to take off.

Now, usually, when you read an article written about someone with a disability and it’s talking about what an able-bodies person can learn from said disabled person it usually talks about how you shouldn’t let anything hold you back from doing the things you’re passionate about. That’s not exactly what I learned from having a dad with one leg, because the fact that he was “disabled” never actually registered in my mind. I had no concept of him overcoming barriers in order to do the things I took for granted, like walking, because it never seemed like there were any barriers to begin with. So, what then, if not overcoming barriers, could I have possibly learned from a one-legged guy?

I firmly believe that my dad was the most influential person in my life in terms of teaching me how to balance work and play. Despite working something like four jobs, he always found time to do things purely for enjoyment, and that usually manifested in the form of making something with his hands, whether that be a piece of chain maille jewelry, another bookshelf for our house, a jig for working on in the garage, or a wooden kayak. My father taught me that no matter how busy you are with work or school, you should always find time for yourself, time to do the things that were just for you.

My dad also taught me that the best way to learn something is to do it. You can read all the books in the world, and you can watch YouTube videos and tutorials for hours, but the best way to learn something is just to actually do it—even, and especially, if you screw up the first couple of times.

Learning to speak another language? You better actually speak it, even if that means looking like a fool early on in front of all your experienced and fluent friends. Learning how to put something together? Stop staring at the directions and trying to put it together in your head, and start actually assembling it, you’re going to have to take it apart a few times anyways. Learning how to drive a stick shift? You can bet that you’re going to be on the road, in traffic, stalling your car at every stop and start because that’s the only way you’re actually going to learn how to drive that nightmare.

Of course, one of the byproducts of being taught to have a hands-on learning experience is that you make mistakes, and they’re usually pretty public and pretty embarrassing when you make them—and then you move on and you try again. In learning to be the first person with their hand in the air to try something new, you also learn to stop being afraid of what other people are going to think when you inevitably—as always happens the first time you do something—make a mistake.

My dad has taught me that you never cover up anything about you just because you’re afraid that people might think it’s different, because when people stare at you it gives you the opportunity to enlighten them. You work hard, but you also rest hard and take care of yourself. You try new things whenever you have the opportunity to, but you try them of your own free will, you don’t let other people force you into something that you don’t already believe you want to try. You consider things seriously, but you also remember not to take things too seriously, and to always laugh.

Most importantly, a guy with one leg taught me that your life isn’t decided by what you don’t have, it’s decided by what you do with the things you do have; and as long as you have confidence, ambition, and integrity, you can do anything you want with as little as nothing at all.