Aron Ralston, the keynote speaker and inspiration for the movie “127 Hours,” spoke at Monday morning's keynote address about how he escaped from death and what he learned about himself, and life, in the process.

In 2003, Ralston made headlines worldwide. After being pinned by a half-ton boulder for nearly a week in a remote 3-ft.-wide slot canyon in southern Utah, Ralston narrowly escaped death by severing his right forearm with a dull pocketknife. After applying a tourniquet, he rappelled and hiked alone for five hours in a haze of dehydration and pain, through Blue John and Horseshoe Canyons, until he found a family of hikers.

After being stuck for several days, and trying everything to dislodge the boulder, Ralston had just about given up. He had a vision of himself walking out of the canyon and then meeting his future son.

"That little boy changed everything," he said.

Then the lightbulb idea struck to break his arm using the boulder as an anchor. Once liberated, the exhilaration was palpable. "I stepped out of my grave and into my life."

Ralston said he wouldn't trade in his experience, especially because of his son. "I'd do it all over again. I wouldn't change a thing."

When tragic events strike, he said, “we have a choice — are these traumas going to be a tragedy or are they going to be blessings? These boulders are going to come and they are going to be big. They have the power to teach us and to show what's extraordinary in us. See that in yourself.”