When Mary Grace was 11-years-old, doctors diagnosed her with Tourette Syndrome. They prescribed her a drug that was supposed to help. What happened, though, would change her life: the diagnosis was wrong, and the drug paralyzed her. “That was a really hard battle for me to go through,” she says. “But I had to just find the courage inside to ask for help.”
That’s when she met, Jean-Paul Garcia, a surf instructor in Santa Barbara, California. He doesn’t just teach people to surf to pay the rent—he teaches people to surf because he knows it can change lives. “There is wisdom in the sea,” he says. “And we need to listen.”
Mary Grace got a prescription to go surfing three times a week, and the results were amazing. With proper medication and a whole lot of work, things began to look up. “I could stand up on my board before I could walk,” she remembers. And now, all these years later, Mary Grace is still surfing and couldn’t be happier. The lessons Jean-Paul taught her went far beyond simply surfing. “He taught me to smile and pass it on,” she says.
