Up to the point of his current injury, Wade identified the final chapter of his life story as the time he has spent playing in the AFL (Chapter 5; 'AFL Years'). He told how he got drafted the next year, as an 18-year-old rookie, and was then faced with the reality of life as a professional footballer. On the field, Wade played over 10 senior games in his first season and over 20 in his second. Early in his third season, however, he was dropped. 'I fell out of favour with the Head Coach', he said. 'I'd just started going to uni part-time and I'd just got married. The club were using these as excuses for why I wasn't performing well enough'. Wade was not selected to play for the rest of that season. However, despite this challenge, he recalled using his disappointment as a spur to get back into the team. 'I got a lot fitter and a lot stronger than I ever was and I knew that all I needed was an opportunity to play'. That opportunity came early the following season, after which Wade played every game in the senior team. When asked about how Wade was able to turn things around, he said:  
Wade then recalled how he had won the club's Best and Fairest award  that year, receiving it again in two of the following three seasons (he was runner-up in the year he did not win). During this time, Wade was also promoted into the club's leadership group and later awarded the club captaincy, which he has held for 2 years at the time of this analysis.
In addition to recalling his life story as a series of chapters, Wade identified nine key scenes and episodes that he judged to be highly significant to him (Table 4). These nuclear episodes are filled with meaning and emotion and include Wade's childhood recollection of playing backyard sport with his siblings and the moment when he was named club captain. A feature of the memories in Table 4 is the high degree of integrative meaning:the life or moral lessons:Wade assigns to them. For example, the incident of his brother's intended suicide reminded him of the importance friends and family in his life; being dropped in his third professional year was the catalyst, in Wade's mind, that led him to redefine his approach in football:'That [event] drove me to improve' (emphasis added). The integrative nature of Wade's memories, and the positive lessons attached to them, suggests he sees them as key episodes that have allowed him to achieve his most important goals to date (Erikson, 1958). The high number of integrative statements in his memories, and the high level of complexity in his storytelling, also points to a strong degree of adjustment and emotional maturity (Blagov & Singer, 2004).
We also note the redemptive sequences inherent to the way that Wade recounts many of his self-defining memories. For example, at 12, Wade begs his parents to attend a Christian high school, to which he attributes the platform for his personal growth and spiritual development; at 17, Wade misses out on draft selection but is successful the following year; he gets dropped from the senior team but later wins two Best and Fairest honours and is awarded the club captaincy; his brother makes an eventual recovery from mental illness; Wade realises he is a man of integrity, despite experiencing strong doubts when attempting to fit into his football surroundings as a rookie. These sequences stand out as psychologically significant patterns in Wade's life story that reflect his tendency to describe meaningful scenes that change from bad to good. People who construct positive resolutions to difficult life experiences often report higher levels of resilience (Bonanno, 2004), well-being (McAdams, Reynolds, Lewis, Patten, & Bowman, 2001), and emotional adjustment (Dumas, Lawford, Tieu, & Pratt, 2009). The continuity of Wade's redemptive memories also suggests he has developed a personal script (i.e. an internal schema; Singer et al., 2013; Tomkins, 1979) for resolving challenging events in his life. In a football context, this script filters his cognitive-affective processing represented by an emotion outcome sequence of challenge-optimism-achievement. In other words, when Wade experiences a setback (e.g. being dropped), after the initial negative affect, he is likely to respond with a sense of hope and renewed commitment that ends with a positive and rewarding outcome (e.g. reselection). At the conclusion of Wade's interview, he was asked to describe any major themes in his life story. He identified 'coming through setbacks' as a major thematic line in his personal narrative. His current injury might also have evoked past memories that underline this redemptive theme (Singer et al., 2013), connecting this episode with other difficult times in Wade's life that remind him of his ability to 'dig deep'.
I believe Jesus died on the cross for my sins and I believe I'll go to heaven. I'm here to love people and do life with them and, hopefully, through the example of my life, they will see Him in me.
'Being true to my beliefs' was the second major theme Wade identified in his life story. When asked about the beliefs and values he lives by, Wade said: