Nolan Arbaugh
speaker
265 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Aug 2024
last heard Aug 2024
Nolan Arbaugh’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
Maybe it's possible, but I'm not sure I would ever put someone I love through that, having to take care of me and stuff. Not being able to go out and play sports. I was a huge athlete growing up, so that was pretty hard. Little things, too, when I realize I can't do them anymore.
There's something really special about being able to hold a book and smell a book, like the feel, the texture, the smell. As you turn the pages, I just love it. I can't do it anymore. It's little things like that. The two-year mark was pretty rough. Two years is when they say you will get back basically as much as you're ever going to get back as far as movement and sensation goes.
And so for the first two years, that was the only thing on my mind, was try as much as I can to move my fingers, my hands, my feet, everything possible to try to get sensation and movement back. And then when the two-year mark hit, so June 30th, 2018, I was really sad that that's kind of where I was. And then just randomly here and there, but I was never depressed for long periods of time.
It never seemed worthwhile to me. What gave you strength? My faith. My faith in God was a big one. My understanding that it was all for a purpose, and even if that purpose wasn't anything involving Neuralink, even if that purpose was...
There's a story in the Bible about Job, and I think it's a really, really popular story about how Job has all of these terrible things happen to him and he praises God throughout the whole situation.
I thought, and I think a lot of people think for most of their lives that they are Job, that they're the ones going through something terrible and they just need to praise God through the whole thing and everything will work out. At some point after my accident, I realized that I might not be Job, that I might be one of his children that gets killed or kidnapped or taken from him.
And so it's about terrible things that happen to those around you who you love. So maybe in this case, my mom would be Job and she has to get through something extraordinarily hard. And I just need to try and make it as best as possible for her. because she's the one that's really going through this massive trial. And that gave me a lot of strength.
And obviously my family, my family and my friends, they give me all the strength that I need on a day-to-day basis. So it makes things a lot easier having that great support system around me.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I've just always thought I could do anything I ever wanted to do. There was never anything too big. Whatever I set my mind to, I felt like I could do it. I didn't want to do a lot. I wanted to travel around and be sort of like a gypsy and like go work odd jobs. I had this dream of traveling around Europe and being like, I don't know, a shepherd in like Wales or Ireland.
And then going and being a fisherman in Italy, doing all of these things for like a year. Like it's such like cliche things, but I just thought it would be so much fun to go and travel and do different things. And so I've always just seen the best in people around me too. And I've always tried to be good to people.
And growing up with my mom, too, she's like the most positive, energetic person in the world. And we're all just people, people like I just get along great with people. I really enjoy meeting new people. And so I just wanted to do everything. This is kind of just how I've been.
Yeah, a bit. Also, it's just kind of how I am. Like I said, I roll with the punches with everything. I used to tell people, I don't stress about things much. And whenever I'd see people getting stressed, I'd just say, you know, like, it's not hard. Just don't stress about it. And like, that's all you need to do. And they're like, that's not how that works. Like, it works for me.
Like, just don't stress and everything will be fine. Like, everything will work out. Obviously, not everything always goes well. And it's not like it all works out for the best all the time. But I just don't think stress has had any place in my life since I was a kid.
No, it was cool. I was never afraid of it. I had to think through a lot. Should I do this? Be the first person? I could wait until number two or three and get a better version of the Neuralink. The first one might not work. Maybe it's actually going to kind of suck. it's going to be the worst version ever in a person. So why would I do the first one? Like I've already kind of been selected.
I could just tell them, you know, like, okay, find someone else. And then I'll do number two or three. Like, I'm sure they would let me, they're looking for a few people anyways. But ultimately I was like, I don't know. There's something about being the first one to do something. It's pretty cool.
I always thought that if I had the chance that I would like to do something for the first time, um, this seemed like a pretty good opportunity. Um, And I was never scared. I think my faith had a huge part in that. I always felt like God was preparing me for something. I almost wish it wasn't this because I had many conversations with God about this.
not wanting to do any of this as a quadriplegic. I told him, I'll go out and talk to people. I'll go out and travel the world and talk to stadiums, thousands of people, give my testimony. I'll do all of it, but heal me first. Don't make me do all of this in a chair. That sucks. And I guess he won that argument. I didn't really have much of a choice. I always felt like there was something...
going on and to see how I Guess easily I made it through the interview process and how quickly everything happened how the star sort of aligned with all this it I It just told me, like, as the surgery was getting closer, it just told me that, you know, it was all meant to happen. It was all meant to be. And so I shouldn't be afraid of anything that's to come. And so I wasn't.
I kept telling myself, like... you know, you say that now, but as soon as the surgery comes, you're probably going to be freaking out. Like you're about to have brain surgery and brain surgery is a big deal for a lot of people, but it's an even bigger deal for me. Like it's all I have left.
The amount of times I've been like, thank you, God, that you didn't take my brain and my personality and my ability to think, my like love of learning, like my character, everything. Like, thank you so much. Like, as long as you left me that, then I think I can get by. And I was about to let people go, like, root around in there. Like, hey, we're going to go, like, put some stuff in your brain.
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