Traveling the world
During the 1095 days Lin spent having her bedsores treated, the repeated relapses and the length of her illness left her feeling hopeless. To take her mind off things, she tried sharing her hospital diary and her experiences of traveling abroad on Facebook. Unexpectedly, many netizens left comments encouraging her to keep her spirits up. Even more surprisingly, two years after she left the hospital, an advertising company, having seen Lin’s description of a trip abroad she had taken on her own in her wheelchair, sought her out to film a commercial entitled “The Power of Fearlessness.” They traveled together to France, the Netherlands, and elsewhere, telling everyone not to let their dreams be limited by fear.
Lin states that when they were discussing the project, the director proposed that she might try extreme sports like paragliding, skiing, and scuba diving. She always responded: “I’m in a wheelchair, so there’s no way I can do that.”
“I’m asking you if you want to, not if you’re able to.” The director explained, “Everyone has some obstacles in life. But if there is no way to change or eliminate these obstacles, can you try to peacefully coexist with them, and take them with you as you move forward?” With Lin willing to try, she and the film crew overcame all kinds of technical difficulties. During their 25-day journey, Lin experienced her first long-haul flight, lasting 16 hours, and though the film crew were all greatly alarmed when for a time she suffered severe swelling and purple discoloration on both legs, thereafter they filmed her going paragliding and skiing in New Zealand. They spent seven hours filming her scuba diving in Palau, as her wheelchair tipped over 20 times before they finally captured footage of her floating at the bottom of the sea, moving forward in her wheelchair.
Lin discovered: “For a lot of things that seemed impossible to me, it turns out that I was just putting too many limitations on myself. When you encounter problems, the right thing to do is figure out how to get past them.”
Lin recounts how her good friend Hui-hui (left) left a note on a vehicle blocking a ramp at an entryway; the note related Lin’s story in a way that inspired empathy. This is how she remembers this close friend, who has sadly passed away.