Travis Roy talks about his challenges

SWAMPSCOTT – There are times in life when you choose your challenges and there are times when challenge chooses you.Those words are from Travis Roy, who has experienced both ends of the spectrum. Roy beat the odds when he fulfilled his childhood dream of playing Division 1 college hockey and he experienced just about the worst life can throw your way when he went head first into the boards 11 seconds into his first shift as a Boston University Terrier.That was 12 years ago, but the story his accident and how he has dealt with his life as a quadriplegic captivated the parents and students who filled the Swampscott High auditorium Wednesday night.Roy’s message was one of sadness and one of hope. He struck a chord with the youngsters in the crowd, many of them athletes, when he talked about his days as a youngster in Yarmouth, Maine, perfecting his hockey skills at the local ice rink managed by his father.”I loved hockey,” Roy said. “And it quickly become my passion.”Although he lived for hockey, he also played a variety of other sports, whatever was in season, and as a result, he spent a lot of time during the summer attending camps. He said one of the messages he heard from just about every coach he encountered was how important it was to set goals.Roy took the message to heart and as a freshman in high school, put together his list of goals. Some were short term, like scoring so many goals or getting so many assists in the upcoming season. Others were long term and one included playing Division 1 hockey. He added playing on the U.S. Olympic team and making the NHL to the list as well. When his father reminded him that it wouldn’t matter how good a hockey player he was if he didn’t keep up his grades, he added “maintaining a B average” to the list.”I had no idea how far along that list of goals I would get,” he said.Roy said he had two primary incentives to reach those goals and he encouraged others to use them as well. One is the desire to be the best at whatever you choose to do and the other was pride, the pride you feel knowing that you didn’t let down your parents, your coaches, your teachers or your teammates. He said you know inside when you’ve sold yourself short or cut corners.When he accomplished his goal of making it to Division 1 hockey, he set a few more for himself. One was to maintain his academic eligibility and the other was to play in B.U.s first game that season (1995).Roy said when coach Jack Parker told him he would be playing in the first game, he called just about everyone he knew. He joked to the crowed that if he had everyone in the crowds number that day, he probably would have called them as well.”I’ll never in my life forget standing on the blue line (during the national anthem). Never in my life had I felt more proud than standing on that blue line.”Roy recalled what a thrill it was when the coach tapped him on the shoulder, signaling him it was time to go in the game..”It was the tap on my back I’d been waiting for my whole life,” he said.Eleven seconds later, he went head first into the boards when he tried to check a player. Roy said he knew immediately that he was in big trouble when he couldn’t move.”My brain was sending a message (to get up) and my body wasn’t listening,” he said.Roy said despite everything that was going on, and knowing it was bad even as he lay on the ice, the one thing he wanted to tell his father, who had come down out of the stands, was that he had “made it.””It came to an end all too soon,” Roy said.Roy told the audience about the months following the accident, and the grueling days of rehabilitation. He said he took as much effort for him to lift a bagel to his mouth after the accident as it did to bench press 160 pounds six months earlier.In talking about the rehab and the challenge of adjustment of living his life in a wheelchair, Roy stressed the importance of living every day with a positive attitude and he encouraged people to never stop trying new things, whether