The summer after Grade 6, I was hiking with my brother, cousin, and uncle in Kananaskis Country when I slipped on a wet rock and fell 40 feet down a waterfall, crashing against jagged rocks before being dragged downstream by the current. My brother, just 15 at the time, ran ahead, scrambling down rocks to reach me. When he finally got to my side, I kept saying “my back hurts”. Then everything went black.
When I woke up in the hospital days later, everything had changed. I learned that my back was broken, my spinal cord was severed, I had a skull fracture, and collapsed lungs.
I was paralyzed from the waist down. I would never walk again.
That September, I didn’t start Grade 7 with my friends. Instead, I was in rehabilitation, adjusting to life in a wheelchair. It wasn’t a positive time for me, so I just don’t like to think about it. I wasn’t able to be a regular teenager so I distanced myself from the ‘old
me’ - activities I once loved like drawing and swimming. I even lost some friendships. So instead, I threw myself into my studies. It is the one thing I could focus on when everything else felt overwhelming. While excelling in school countered my inabilities, it took a toll on the other areas of my life.
Entering high school in a wheelchair, and now University, I struggle to make new friends, so I pour myself into my studies to get that sense of fulfillment. I don’t know what goes through people’s minds when they see me. Maybe they’re afraid to say the wrong thing. Maybe my wheelchair just makes things different. I try to put myself out there, but sometimes it feels like people hesitate. Despite this, I know how valuable relationships can be, and I want to create my own life without relying on my parents.
Being eighteen, I want to prioritize my independence. I dream of being able to get out the door without everything being a struggle and so time-consuming with my wheelchair. During the school year, I’m always planning hours ahead - around the frigid and snowy Alberta weather, the bus schedule, and trying to figure out whether my parents are free to help me. I know that my parents would move mountains for me, but I hate the feeling of being that burden.
I want to spend time with friends, pick up new hobbies, get a part-time job to start building experience for my future, and ultimately figure out who I am - outside of school.
In a way, it’s a dream of mine to branch out from my studies. I hope that with my Shine Dream this year, I can gain more independence, improved transportation, and accessibility with a lift to help bring my wheelchair into my car and a transfer board to get behind the wheel. I will then be able to drive myself to the movies with friends, zip across town in all weather, and be at school completely independently. I know that this will help me shift my life in a new direction.
But I need your help to make my Dream possible, and so do countless other Dreamers this year.
Your donation today will help me gain the accessibility I need to break out of my shell, improve my social skills and mental health, and lead a brighter, more successful future.
Please donate today.
Click here and your donation this Spring 2025 will be MATCHED by Shine's partner at Motion up to $5,000!
