Welcome to the web page of ODU Mechanical Engineering student, Davis Takhvar!
About Me:
I was born in Modesto, CA on November 9th, 1993 and later moved to San Luis Obispo, CA at the age of 5. I attended San Luis Obispo High School and was a 3 sport athlete participating in Football, Wrestling and Baseball. I enlisted in the Navy immediately after graduating as many others in my family had. I served just for under 5 years with 2 deployments overseas as an Avionics Technician working on the infamous Boeing F/A-18F Strike Fighter aircraft. Loving every minute of what I did in the service made separating a difficult decision for me, however, I decided to leave the service to pursue my Bachelor’s at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA. In my spare time as a student, I enjoyed surfing and racing motocross on the weekends. On one fateful weekend during the Fall of my Junior year at ODU, I was out at the motocross track when my life changed forever. Immediately after suiting up for a practice session, I hit the track on my Kawasaki KX450 and just went for it – without warming up, I started putting down laps at a familiar pace. Halfway into my first heat, I hit a rut on the face of a large step-up jump at around 55 mph (according to my LitPro MX GPS) and was sent an extra 20-30 feet. This resulted in me massively overjumping the landing and crashing into the berm past the immediate corner. My suspension completely collapsed resulting in me breaking my T8-T10 vertebrae leaving me permanently paralyzed from the belly-button down. The doctors gave me a recovery prognosis of less than 1% that I would ever walk again – I didn’t care. After months of rehab and 2 full semesters off from school, I was determined to get back to where I was before sustaining this life changing injury. Within a few days at the hospital, I was telling myself that I would not let something like this define me and made a promise to those I love that I will one day walk again, even if it takes 10, 20, or even 30 years – I’m not going to give up. Since that fateful day, I have grown so much as a person and continued to master many skills that will allow me to be the best possible version of myself. I am beyond excited to see what my future holds post-graduation knowing that I am fully in control of my own destiny.
” Shoot for the stars, but if you happen to miss – shoot for the moon instead…”
– Neil Armstrong