The Kyle Pablo Memorial Scholarship Fund
The Strength of Inspiration – living the best life possible under impossible circumstances
We each get born. If you are lucky you get born healthy, with all your fingers and toes intact, and into a family with parents who have the ability to raise you up. However, it is a complete genetic crap shoot if you are born healthy and which family you get born into.
Some families are made up of parents who are strong, smart and rich. Others? Not so much. What most people do not realize is if you get born and you are healthy and strong and you get a good family, you have won the lottery. Not just any lottery but the biggest lottery jackpot ever...of all time.
Luck. You are really lucky if you have it. If you want to have a good life and you don’t have good luck, you better have the tools to make up for it.
Kyle Pablo had a very mixed bag of luck in his life but he had the right stuff, a set of tools that allowed him to have the best life he possibly could.
Kyle was born with a terrible gene. Your genes define who you are. Your genes determine the color of your hair and your eyes and many other things which make you uniquely yourself. Kyle had the gene for a very specific kind of muscular dystrophy. This disease robbed him of any muscular strength in almost every part of his body. Even as a baby, he did not have the muscular strength in his face to smile. Can you imagine...not being able to smile?
From the time he was twelve, he had to get around in a wheelchair. His first wheelchair was almost a toy. Kyle pushed himself around in that little wheelchair, but it didn’t last long. Before long he had to get a wheelchair which had a motor because he did not have the strength to push it himself.
The muscles in his face were very weak so speaking correctly was hard. This disease robbed him. Over time he was robbed of some of the most basic things we take for granted. He lost the ability to walk, to stand up, speak, go to the bathroom, take a shower, feed himself. He could not do the simplest things.
Because here is the other thing – Kyle had good luck too. He hit the lottery in the sense that he had qualities that allowed him to live the very best life he could. If he had not had these other qualities he probably would have spent every day of his life in bed. So even though the disease robbed him of the opportunity to do the things most of us take for granted he had another set of qualities which he used to make the best life possible under impossible circumstances.
Kyle never gave up. On anything. No matter how hard it was, he was always looking for a solution. What made someone with a terrible disease like Kyle not give up? To keep trying even though everything, every day was hard?
First and foremost, he was determined. He also had discipline which gave shape to every day. He could not afford to squander his time. There was an order to each of his days. He had daily habits which included work and play. He always had goals both short and long term.
He was an avid reader. Anything he wanted to know was at his fingertips; on his computer. His computer was his life-line.
Being different and being left out must have unbearable at times. He must have suffered. He understood and accepted his circumstances and lived a life of acceptance. He never complained – Ever!
Kyle died when he was 31 years old. He got a cold and the muscles you need to breathe were not strong enough to allow him to recover.
Kyle was an inspiration because of his strength. Not the kind that helps you lift weights but the kind which endures throughout your life. His life was short but he lived his life with courage, grit and determination.
If you were lucky, you knew him.
Kyle Pablo
"the right stuff, a set of tools that allowed him to have the best life he possibly could.
Kyle Checked All the Boxes
Living in the Moment
Kyle’s muscular dystrophy condition forced him to live in the moment, a result developed out of dealing with the potentially life threatening affects of his everyday physical activities. Also, with his difficulty in producing understandable speech, his focus on when attempting to communicate was palpable.
Failing Well
Physical and communicative deficits prompted failure with many endeavors each day for Kyle. Yet, he was relentless in pushing the limits of his physical and communicative abilities to develop and achieve both short term and long term goals...failing well to learn to live better.
Fighting for Others
Kyle fought for folks with disabilities throughout his 31 years of life as he modeled how to overcome physical adversity to achieve his ambitious goals.
Earning Everything
Kyle was fortunate to live during the advent of the computer age. As a result of only 3 operational fingers on one hand he operated his electric wheelchair as he earned his high school diploma as well as a computer science degree at University of California Berkeley while managing his physical aide. He also interned at Dow Chemical in Midland Michigan during the summer of his Junior year at Berkeley.
Thinking for Yourself
Kyle, in being fully aware of his unique limitations, always thought for himself in setting his short and long term goals. His life was a “road rarely traveled” where rethinking your strategies on a continual basis was standard operating procedure.
Kyle’s Grit
Physical grit – Kyle had to withstand several major medical operations during his lifetime as his body continually collapsed on itself compromising his vital organs. Though his family supported him through these unpleasant circumstances, Kyle led the way. And as a true leader, he never complained.
Emotional grit – Kyle dealt with rejection everyday of his life based on his physical appearance. His self confidence in his wheelchair as he sped down the wooden deck paths on Fire Island, or on the dance floor at his sister’s engagement party was awe inspiring. Despite his disabilities, he knew who he was. He knew the people he valued, the things he valued and the ideals he valued. He was forced to control his own emotions while managing his support team's emotions and always cherished his will to live. Emotional intelligence at its finest.
Intellectual grit – Kyle fulfilled the life he lived based almost entirely by thinking beyond his disability and applying knowledge while learning to cope in a world not made for him. He thought his way through every adversity that was presented while not only graduating from a mainstream high school but also receiving a degree in computer science from a globally respected academic institution University of California Berkeley. He had the courage to test his intellect and met the challenge with flying colors.
Financial grit – Kyle was a big fan of money. He was a saver and an investor. He started and ran a computer service company once he graduated from college which addressed the needs of aging baby boomers and their computer ineptness. This was in the early 2000’s. With some of his profits he invested in computer companies that were addressing future visions of where computing was heading. One such company was Red Hat, whose vision was all about “cloud computing/data storage”. He invested several thousand dollars . A few years after Kyle died, his Mom received a check for almost $100,000 from IBM as a result of their purchase of Red Hat in their pursuit of being in the “cloud/data storage” business.