By Brennan Collins
MOORHEAD — Inspirational speaker Hunter Pinke arrived on campus last Sunday sharing his story with the goal of inspiring just one student in the crowd.
A star athlete and high school Valedictorian, Pinke was offered a scholarship to play football for the University of North Dakota. Tragically, in 2019 a skiing accident left Pinke paralyzed from the chest down.
Despite losing his ability to walk, Pinke remains solid in his conviction, saying,
“I will actually tell you that I’m more confident sitting here today paralyzed than I ever was standing up on two feet.”
A stand-out portion of Pinke’s Message is his philosophy of “No bad Days,” a belief he adopted during his rehabilitation.
“If you guys wanna take one thing from tonight, I would take this: I think there’s a difference between bad days and tough days.”
Pinke’s message invites us to reframe how we view our day, reminding us that we alone have the power to determine how we define our lives.
“I’ve had a lot of tough days but never bad.”
“two thousand, one hundred and thirty seven. That’s my streak. A lot of good days, a lot of tough days, no bad days.”
Pinke’s appearance was a joint effort coordinated between SAAC (Student Athlete Advisory Committee) and SGA (Student Government Association). Concordia student Evan Grover helped to broker this event between both campus organizations.
“I first saw Hunter speak in my hometown of Warroad, I was really inspired by his message and I thought it’d be really cool to get him here at Concordia.”
As a member of the Service committee through SAAC Grover’s role is signing up Concordia athletes for different out-reach programs, the most notable of which is Ruby’s food pantry.
“We wanted to bring a big speaker in to do a really cool event on campus. And we thought Hunter Pinke was a good fit” said Grover.
A large portion of attendance to Sunday’s presentation appeared to be Concordia athletes, a common audience of Pinke.
Despite his origins deeply rooted in organized sports, Pinke’s message of resilience is for all.
“Hunter was an athlete. So he does have messages for athletes, but his big keynote presentation that we’re having him do on Sunday is directed for all students. It’s a very relatable message” said Grover.
Within the opening minutes his Presentation Pinke makes his intentions known to the audience.
“The first thing that we need to become clear on is that I am not here to motivate you” said Pinke “I think it can boost you up but when adversity hits, real adversity in life I think motivation will get you so far.”
“My goal for tonight is to hopefully inspire you.”
As a staple of his keynote presentation, Pinke maintains his detachment from traditional motivational speakers, standing as spectacle to his own unique on-stage deliverance.
“Yeah, I just, I don’t like phony motivational speakers” said Pinke “it’s nothing against them. I’m sure they relate with some people. But I just wanted to be authentic, and I think authenticity leads to inspiration, not motivation.
Intertwined within his message of “No bad Days” is a very warm balance of comedy. Pinke’s quick remarks and gestures with what he calls “wheelchair jokes” only makes the audience gravitate to his good ole’ Midwest charm all the more.
“I don’t want it to be too heavy” said Pinke “There’s heavy moments, but it needs to be balanced out, and people are paying the most attention. So usually comedy and laughter is paired with some of your biggest points, because I know the audience is listening.”
In attendance to Sunday’s guest speaker was Concordia Senior Jace Springer who Pinke called to assist him on stage later in the presentation. Springer, a member of the football team like many others in attendance, were already familiar with Pinke, in-part due to a leadership presentation for athletes given by Pinke earlier in the day.
“It changes my mindset of like, these things aren’t just happening to you” said Springer “If you’re having a tough day, you have a role in it. You have a choice. You have agency in your life to take it from a bad day to just being a tough day.
