I still cannot seem to remember anything from the accident. My family filled in the blanks over the next couple of weeks as I began to try and pull myself back together. A spinal cord injury is something no one should ever have to go through, but here we all are. My dad told me when we were in the ambulance. As I lay there still in shock, I said, “Don’t worry, Daddy, I’ll walk again,” as if I knew nothing would get in my way; nothing would hold me down and someday I would walk again.

Maggie Anderson I was initially injured in December of 2003, after the car I was riding in with my family hit a patch of black ice just outside of Boise, Idaho. I was in the backseat asleep without my seatbelt as the car lost control. All I remember was sitting up, seeing and feeling the car out of control, and then, nothing. I woke up in the hospital days after they put rods in my back to stabilize the dislocation and fracture that occurred to my T-12/L1 vertebra, which left me paralyzed from my waist down. The doctors told my parents that there was no chance of me walking again.

Two months after my injury, I was able to stand on my left leg without support. My right leg began to gain strength after three years of physical training and, although I am not able to stand on it without support, it is only getting stronger. I am currently working on strength training, gait training and overall coordination.

When I dream, I am not in a wheelchair, I never have been, and I am excited to think, one day my dreams will come true. I have a dream, and I have hundreds of people who believe in me. It gives me strength I didn’t know I had. Life gets crazy sometimes and you can forget what is important, but every time I go for my therapy, I think of everyone who believes in me, who supported me when my family and I did not have the means to and who told my story to give hope or inspiration. All of it gives me the strength to keep going.

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