BAM! I heard the loud noise but hadn’t registered what had happened. I don’t think my mom or sister had either. I looked up and we were spinning, heading for the other lane. I remember screaming at my mom, “What’s happening?” but she just looked at me, frozen. We kept spinning for what felt like an eternity. Once we finally stopped and had reached the other lane, I looked through my airbag and out the window to discover a minivan coming right toward me. I still remember the driver’s face. Her eye were wide, her jaw open, and her hands jerking the wheel as hard as she could. I leaned back, bracing myself, thinking that was it.

I woke up a few moments later to a firefighter pulling me out of the driver’s side of our car. My head bleeding, my eyes spinning, but all I could think was that I was still alive. It was a sunny day but all I could see was smoke. The firefighters laid me down in the grass to put me on a stretcher. All these people rushed over to ask me questions, but I didn’t have the words to answer them. I just wanted to know where my mom and sister were. I hoped they were okay. I started to fade in and out of consciousness as they loaded me into an ambulance. The woman taking care of me was nice. She was gentle and made sure I knew what she was doing before causing me any pain. She also informed me that my mom and sister were in another ambulance heading towards the same hospital.

When I arrived at the Emergency room, four different doctors rushed over to me. They wheeled me into a room and started hooking me up to all these different machines. I remember them having to cut some of my clothes off to get to my injuries. I tried to say no but they insured me that it was needed. I let them continue to examine me. Once the doctor saw the extent of my injuries, he ordered that the nurse inject some morphine into my IV. After a few minutes, the pain and the adrenaline had slowed down. I dozed off while the doctors continued to work and X-ray my body.

I opened my eyes to my dad holding my hand. He was on the left side of my bed with my sister standing behind him. My mom was on the right. She was crying and in a wheelchair. My dad just kept telling me how much he loved me and my sister rushed out to get the doctor. As the doctor walked back into my room, he looked much different than when I had seen him before. This time he looked hopeful. In a lot of big medical terms, he explained my injuries to me. I had two disconnected hips that would need surgery to repair, a small bleed in the right hemisphere of my brain from my head hitting the window during the crash, a strained neck, a dislocated shoulder, and lots of under the skin bleeds around my body. I knew that the injuries were bad, but they could have been so much worse. The doctor told me that I was lucky to be alive. My mom had suffered neck and foot damage, but with some physical therapy she would be okay, and so would my sister. I looked at my family and the road of recovery I had ahead of me, knowing that God had a plan for my life.

Three and a half years later, I have been through two years of intensive physical therapy, two hip surgeries, and a spinal surgery. It was a challenge, but through it I learned a lot about myself. The hardest part was having to quit playing the sport I loved the most to help by body recovery.The nurses who helped me through my surgeries impacted my life in such a way that I am now going to study pediatric nursing. I want to help others in the way that the medical team helped me.