September 10, 2025
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Gyudae “GD” Kim never planned on becoming a geographer. Nearly 20 years ago, he was serving his mandatory military service in South Korea when a sudden injury left him paralyzed. At the time, he wasn’t considering graduate school, let alone an academic career. He was just trying to figure out how to move forward.
That turning point came in a veteran’s hospital, where another veteran introduced him to adaptive sports. It was an invitation that shifted his outlook. “I didn’t enjoy my life around that time,” Kim recalls. “But they showed me what the real world had, such as wheelchair sports.” What began as a way to rebuild his body also helped him rebuild his sense of possibility.
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