I am 19 years old but two years ago I felt like I was on top of the world. My whole life was going perfect. I was just coming off an amazing Junior year and my best year ever in high school. I didn't miss one day of school and I was so pumped and ready for my senior year of basketball. I was training so hard and was so ready for the season to start so I can prove so many people wrong. I also felt like I can do anything and get anything I wanted and everything was just going in the right direction for me until my near fatal day August 4, 2007. On August 4, 2007 I was in a car accident... the night before I was working at the Great American cookie store until 10 PM and when I got home it was around 11 and I'm never tired when I get home from work so, I was watching TV and then I got on the computer till 2:04 a.m. and that's when I went to sleep. I had to wake up at seven in the morning to take my cousin to work, so I only got five hours of sleep and I was extremely tired, but, I never say no. So, I got up and took her and usually I drive her there and then I drive back but this morning I was too tired so I told her to drive their and I will drive back. When I got in the driver’s seat sitting in the parking lot I asked myself, “should I go into the mall and get something to drink to wake me up or not " and I kept thinking and thinking what I should do but I was so tired I just said forget it. When I was driving back everything was going okay and I actually felt wide awake and by this time it was 7:30 in the morning. I made a right turn on Mac Hatcher road and since it was so early in the morning there were literally no cars on the road and Mac Hatcher road is just a straight line down with no turns at all. When I drive, I always drive on the left side of the road and not the right side unless I am going to turn so as I was driving down Mac Hatcher road I didn't want to hear or feel anything, so I put all the windows up so the wind wouldn't hit my face and cut the music off so I wouldn't hear the music and that was the mistake I made. So while I was driving, I thought I saw my friend's car so I texted him to see if it was him and when he wrote me back he said it wasn't him so I put my phone back down and then out of nowhere, I just fell asleep. My car drifted all the way to the right side of the road and hit a big rock that was implanted in the ground and my car flipped three times in the air and I landed in a deep ditch and the next time I woke up, I was in the hospital... The level of my spinal cord injury is C4 C5 and I am classified as a quadriplegic. Since then, I have changed a lot, in a bad way and a good way. The bad way is that I am not able to walk anymore and can't function like I used to and for the good way, I feel I have become a better person, I still have the same mind and personality like I had before the accident, I still laugh and watch TV and do everything like I did before. I just want to say thank you to everybody who has been supporting me and praying for me since.
This is my motto for everybody... keep doing what you do and don't let no one bring you down...
"Yetco"
