Meet Gavin, Our First Donation

As I turned onto the mainstreet that would lead me to my house at 2 a.m., I was so close to home when a car cut me off. My motorcycle made impact like a brick wall, and I flipped over the car in the air to land on my back in the middle of the street. All I could think was, “No way that just happened." I was staring up at the moon through my helmet, still completely conscious. When I looked to the left and right, I saw that I was laying in a pool of blood and thought that I could have made it home by now. Two men got out of the vehicle and tried to help me out of the street. When I tried to stand up, I realized that my right leg was mangled. My foot was gone, but I don’t remember seeing how much of my leg I had lost. I just looked at my tattered pant leg. They  dragged me to the curb where I started losing consciousness as they asked me questions. When I could hear the ambulance finally arrive, I blacked out and disappeared. I woke up two days later out of a coma with my leg gone.

Walking on a prosthetic leg is way different from how I was used to walking before. I learned that I had taken for granted all the movements that came naturally when I would walk. Now I had to focus on every step I took, map out the movements, and repeat till my brain could understand this new piece of me. Over the span of around a month and a half, I have gone through physical, mental, and emotional pain struggling to adapt to life. Getting daily tasks done were not too hard because the muscle memory caught up quick. Instead, I had to get through the substantial amount of pain and build tolerance for the weight of a prosthetic leg. I get through each day breaking new physical and mental boundaries. 

There is sooo much excitement when you are preparing to receive your new prosthetic leg. I remember going through every emotion leading up to my first couple of steps. The whole process for me was very intriguing because I knew little about prosthetics. A year prior to this, I had been on crutches; I learned to adapt to life with them and they became my normal. Immediately, I realized the lack of independence that comes with having a disability and tried my hardest to be self-sufficient. I thought this would be my life forever. I will never forget the moment I was finally able to throw away my crutches and walk towards a new path, looking at life in a different perspective. In this world, limbs unfortunately do not grow back. It has become important to me that I share my journey. To show that I’ve been through the endless darkness and managed to find light. Don’t give up, try harder.