Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the interpretation of facts and data.

I've been blessed to be a storyteller for a few decades now. I started hosting a talk show on the radio in Grand Forks back in 1986. The medium was the first social media and long before the internet age.

Decades before that, families gathered around the radio for all their news and entertainment. It was theater without a stage, painting pictures with words instead of images on a screen. That's always been the part I loved -- telling stories, creating connections, and giving people something they can see in their mind's eye.

These days, I still tell stories on the radio every day, but I also spend a good part of my time helping businesses big and small tell their own stories, in hopes of finding new customers. It's a labor of love. And sometimes, in the course of that work, I stumble into a story so powerful it stops me in my tracks. That's what happened this week when I sat down for lunch with a young man named Kolby Hunsicker .

In September of 2023, during his senior year at West Fargo High School, he was riding his motorcycle when a drunk driver hit him. The crash cost him his right leg. It could have cost him his life. His helmet made the difference. Hunsicker had been a helmet advocate even before the accident, but as I listened to him, I realized that our conversation -- even the gift of meeting him at all -- hinged on that decision. That's a column in itself.

You might expect a story like Hunsicker's to be filled with anger. But that's not him. What I found was a 20-year-old with grit, grace, and a perspective many of us spend a lifetime searching for. The driver who hit him had a history of DUIs. Hunsicker faces a future of medical hurdles, prosthetic adjustments, and financial challenges. Yet he speaks with calm acceptance about what's happened, and an even clearer focus on what comes next: his business, his goals, his future.

Here's a young man who lost his leg, who lives with challenges most of us can hardly imagine, yet refuses to be defined by them. Hunsicker owns his own business, DeJunkify, offering junk removal and hauling. He works nights at a warehouse while saving for a home. He talks without resentment, without bitterness. Instead, he carries a tender spirit and a positive outlook that draw you in.

What I witnessed over that lunch was resilience -- an unshakable choice to keep living fully, even when life didn't give him the choice he wanted. Hunsicker is only 20, yet he carries himself with the wisdom of someone three times his age. I walked away reminded that God arranges our meetings for a reason. What started as a simple lunch became a God-directed conversation, a lesson in gratitude, and a reminder to support Hunsicker's relentless work ethic and unwaveringly positive spirit.

I hope you will, too. If you're in need of residential or commercial junk removal, consider giving DeJunkify a call at 701-566-3689 or go to www.dejunkifyllc.com .