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The 2011 Arnold Sports Festival was one of the best experiences of my life! I am still shocked that my movie Perspective, produced by Aubree Marchione and directed by Robert Nuzzie, won the Overall Award at the first ever Arnold Film Festival - and I'm also shocked that I took home the crystal "Arny" in the international division, which was presented by Arnold Schwarzenegger along with an invitation to visit him on a Hollywood film set.
This was my third Arnold Sports Festival, and the third year I had been with Bodybuilding.com, whose booth I was at. None of this would ever have happened if it wasn't for one man: Mick Skinner. Everything happens for a reason, and if you strive long enough and hard enough, dreams really do come true - but you must be willing to go the distance.
How it all started was that I decided at the last minute to go to the 2008 Olympia Expo in Las Vegas to network and spread awareness of the sport of wheelchair bodybuilding. At that time, I was trying to start the first ever IFBB (International Federation Body Building) Professional Wheelchair Division, and I needed support to make the show happen. Before going to the event, I had been turned down over 15,000 times between companies to help sponsor me or support the sport of wheelchair bodybuilding. Many saw my vision as too big or just didn't care to give me the time of day.
Going into the 2008 Olympia Expo, I had one mission: to see if I could get sponsors for the IFBB Pro Wheelchair Division event I was working on. Regardless of what has happened in the past, I believed in my vision and in what I was trying to achieve, so I didn't let the previous rejections affect me. After the weekend, the only man who gave me the time was Mick Skinner from the Bodybuilding.com booth. We talked, and later that week we emailed back and forth. In the end, he wanted Bodybuilding.com to be the title sponsor for the event, and he also offered to make me a part of the team. I was shocked because the whole time it had never about me, and now I had been offered what few in the world ever achieve in their life.
 Christina Larson, Hollyn Rios, Mick Skinner and Nick Scott at the 2008 Olympia
This set a chain of effects into motion, because it was at the Bodybuilding.com booth at the 2009 Arnold Sports Festival that I met Aubree Marchione, who interviewed me and later emailed me to reveal who she really was: a professional Latin ballroom dancer who teaches wheelchair ballroom-dancing. I live in Kansas, and Aubree lives in New Jersey, and we met in Philadelphia to have our first ballroom-dance lesson in May of 2009. We met on a Thursday and filmed our first dance on Sunday night: our "Samba."
I continued to fly out to Philadelphia once a month to take ballroom lessons, and at the 2010 Arnold Sports Festival Aubree and I was one of six couples in the world chosen to perform for Arnold Schwarnegger. I danced during my lunch break because I was at the Bodybuilding.com booth that weekend. Later that year, Aubree and I won two titles in Latin Ballroom Dance and became the #1 Wheelchair Ballroom Dance Couple in the USA. We represented the USA for the first time in history at the World IPC Wheelchair Dance Sport Championship in Hannover, Germany, on November 2010.
So here we are at the 2011 Arnold Sports Festival, and my movie Perspective (which Aubree produced and Robert Nuzzie directed) has won the Overall Award at the first ever Arnold Sports Film Festival. But as I said, none of this would ever have happened if it were not for one man who actually believed in me when everybody else turned me down and had no faith in my visions - Mick Skinner was the one man who was willing to give me a chance when everybody else had closed the door on me. He came into my life when I was at one of my lowest points, and I thank you, Mick Skinner, from the bottom of my heart, for believing in me when nobody else did. If it wasn't for you, my story, my voice, my movie would have never won this award, because if I wasn't at the Bodybuilding.com booth at the 2009 Arnold Sports Festival I would have never met Aubree Marchione.
Aubree Marchione, Robert Nuzzie, Justin Matthew LaDeau, Jim Lorimer and Nick Scott at the 2011 Arnold Sports Film Festival
Nobody knows what you go through when you get turned down over and over. I never gave up, regardless of the endless nights I spent feeling like a loser and crying myself to sleep. Nobody cared about what I was trying to do, but I knew in my heart that there was a reason for it, and something inside guided me and helped me push through. I believe that God helps those who help themselves and will open the doors as long as you have faith and believe in what you do and why you do it.
Nick Scott and Jim Lorimer after "Perspective" Winning the 2011 Arnold Sports Film Festival Overall Award Crystal "Arny"
The Arnold Sports Festival has impacted my life more than anybody will ever know. It gave me opportunities that I never thought possible or even dreamed of. I believe that life is not about yourself but about helping others, because we naturally feel a sense of gratification when we do something for someone else rather than for ourselves. And that is what my life is about: it has never been about myself. It has been to help inspire and motivate others, and to show them that you can be anything and achieve anything you want to as long as you work hard enough for it.
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Nick Scott at the 2011 Arnold Sports Festival Sponsor Buffet Luncheon - Sunday, March 6, 2011
The Arnold Sports Festival is very personal to me, and now you know why. I do not take what I do for granted, and it is an honor to be able to be at the booth. I wear the Bodybuilding.com logo with pride.
Overall, the Arnold Sports Festival was even bigger this year, and I got to see and talk to many of my friends in the Fitness Industry as well as to spend some time giving back to the people and fans, because without them, our careers as athletes don't mean anything. That is why I do everything I do: for the people and the fans.
It was great hanging out with Team Bodybuilding.com, going out at nights, attending ring-side at the fights and having many other amazing experiences. I had an amazing time on my first photo-shoot with the legendary photographer Brent Allen and the highly skilled Mike from MidAtlantic Photos. Special thanks for models Taylor Matheny and Joy Trimble for shooting with me at MidAtlantic Photos' photo-shoot!
Thank you to the fans and supporters. You inspire me to be the best that I can be, and you help push me beyond what many think is impossible.
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