I was very adventurous, played soccer.
I had just started at the College of Charleston
so that was a lot of going to the beach and walking around, hiking with friends
and when I had my accident, all of those things were no longer an option.
A friend of mine and I drove home to Atlanta and all of our friends were back on fall break
so we got together and we were having a little party
and a buddy of mine had a motorcycle and I thought it would be fun and kind of cool
to get on the back and take just a lap around the cul-de-sac
and as we were pulling back into the driveway,
a car parked on the side didn't see us and reversed,
so my friend had to take a sharp right and lay the bike down
and I just flew off.
The primary concern after the injury
immediately was obviously the physical injury to my spine
but I also did have a mild brain injury as well.
I had just started at college.
Having that taste of freedom, living out on my own for the first time,
and after only two months of that
I couldn't even get out of bed to brush my teeth.
I was starting to complain and I was hurting, and just really having sort of a pity party.
I had a nurse have a very frank conversation with me
and without reprimanding, or in a negative way at all,
she let me know that it was a blessing to be able to be here
but my time at Shepherd was going to be limited
and I had so many resources available to me and so much support right then
in a way I wouldn't have when I went home eventually
and that I needed to really think if I wanted to make the most out of this
and accept people's help or waste this opportunity.
I realized what I need to do was grieve the Julia that I was before my injury
and let go of what I thought my life would be.
I sort of blocked out any negativity that was coming in
and I very quickly adopted the mantra of, "get better, not bitter."
Yay!
Wow!
My two favorite, favorite things with the rec therapy was
we hosted a haunted house on our floor.
We got set up, it looked like some sort of torture chamber that we turned the gym into
and even though Halloween isn't sunshine and rainbows
but our families and other patients got to see us having fun
and that we could still do that no matter what limitations we may have,
and also the art therapy. Being able to have a creative outlet
while I was spending so much time on the just practical, physical recovery,
that was really helpful in keeping a balance between the two.
I remember my mom went through all the training for what I would need to know how to do.
She had to be trained on how to do all of those things as well.
You feel insecure about what you can do
because it's such a change from how you were before
and so the, knowing that I was trained and then having family members trained too
really gave all of us the confidence while we were out so we could really enjoy our time
and not be nervous about not knowing what to do if something went wrong.
Doing anything took so much energy from me.
I wanted to be sure what I decided to put my energy towards
was something that felt worth it to me, you know,
that would have meaning and purpose to my life
and I decided that culinary school is what that looked like.
It shocked everybody.
Being in a wheelchair in the kitchen... that just doesn't seem to mix very much.
But nonetheless I was very determined.
It took me almost seven years to graduate and I'm happy to say that now,
seven years later, I have a clean bill of health.
"Get better, not bitter." I still live by that every day.
Hope is here.