Alyssa: I have a spinal cord injury
due to a doctor using forceps during my birth,
and the doctor broke my spine right there and then.
That means that I've been on life support
and in a wheelchair my whole life.
I was always the shy one in school.
Jimmy has helped me build confidence.
Jimmy: Those are our best pictures.
Alyssa: My name is
Alyssa Higgins. I'm 29 years old
and I have spinal cord injury
due to a doctor using forceps
during my birth.
They use forceps
to pull the babies out.
And the doctor
broke my spine right there and then.
I came out basically
dead.
And they had to
do a
tracheotomy on me.
That means
that I've been on life support
and in a wheelchair
my whole life.
Before I met my husband,
dating, I actually
was kind of like seeing someone,
but it was really, really horrible.
And they even said at one point that
they didn't
want to be with me because
of my disability.
I went on dating sites.
I'm not going to lie, those are scary.
They are scary.
But when I did meet Jimmy,
it felt good to know that
there are good guys on these sites.
Jimmy: He’s a good boy today, right?
Jimmy: She didn’t have any full body pictures,
but just from her face,
I thought she was pretty. And so I …
I messaged her.
Alyssa: Since I saw his picture on the website,
I thought he was really, really cute.
Jimmy: I wasn't nervous for the date
but then once I actually saw her
I got all nervous and the machine and all the
screen threw me off. I didn't know what to say to her.
And you're just like there's no one I've ever
been more comfortable with
and enjoy spending my time with.
Jimmy: I love her and I wouldn't want it
any other way.
Alyssa: Yeah, can you get them like
you know that beater?
Alyssa: Jimmy helps me
by just like getting me in and out of bed
and help getting me dressed.
Jimmy: Alyssa?
She's just so easy to get along with.
And like … like the fact that she's on wheelchair holds me back from like,
doing stuff.
Alyssa: It tastes great.
Jimmy: Do we have a good team now?
Alyssa: I started my page back in July of last year.
And I figured I would just give it a try.
My Instagram just kind of like blew up.
This was in North Carolina.
Alyssa: And it connected me to so many people
that have disabilities, spinal cord injuries.
I think raising awareness for anyone with a disability
is freaking awesome.
Because …
who else is going to speak for you?
Jimmy: What else do you need, anything?
Alyssa: No, that's it.
Alyssa: I was always the shy one
in school.
I just wasn't that outgoing
girl that like,
that popular girl,
obviously everyone knew who I was
but, I wasn't the one to like,
“hey?" Or "how are you?”
or like kind of like that. I was just like to myself.
Jimmy has helped me build confidence.
Alyssa: I'm excited.
Alyssa: So right now,
we are at my 10 year high school reunion.
Jimmy: Ready?
Alyssa: Oh hi? How are you?
Male Speaker: How are you doing?
Alyssa: Good. Can you believe its the ten year reunion?
Alyssa: My classmates,
they were really nice to me.
Female Speaker: I know Alyssa from high school.
She's always just been so
kind and sweet
and just did her own thing.
She was friends with everybody.
She was like a floater like me,
like we didn't have like one group of friends that we hung out with.
So she just got along with everybody.
Female Speaker: I was her nurse since she was 18 months old,
and I took care of her till she was 19.
I was ecstatic
that she would meet someone
that would be with her and understand
her issues.
Jimmy: It’s crazy how positive she is,
I just love seeing her like interact with everyone.
Lights up the room. You know?
Alyssa: I felt like I proved so many people wrong.
I'm very proud of myself
of what I achieved.
Jimmy: Nothing makes me happier than
making her happy and seeing her happy.