My Mission
On July 6, 2002, at the age of Seventeen I was involved in a terrible car accident that has altered my life forever. I suffer from Traumatic Brain Injury and have undergone rehabilitation for many years to learn to use my hands and learn to walk again. I never regained my speech back. In conjunction with my family, I created a 45 minute presentation that sends a strong message to youths entering the driving age.
The fact that I am sitting here and am able to share my story after such a tragic event is truly a blessing. I was the typical trouble-making teenager that lived in the fast lane. I had lost my Dad from Brain Cancer in 1999, two years prior to the accident and was very angry at the world. Nothing really mattered to me in life, and I had no dreams or plans for my future. My life was from day to day. I was going to school, but was I kicked out most of high school, or I was cutting when ever I wasn’t suspended and partying with my friends.
The night before the accident, I went to a keg party. My friends and I partied all night. Early the next morning, we decided to go for some bagels. A couple of my friends jumped in one car and I hopped in another car with a girl I had just met the night before. As we were driving and racing with the other car, the girl lost control driving the car I was in and flipped into a ditch. I was NOT wearing a seatbelt so I flipped around like a beach ball. When the paramedics arrived they had to intubate me. This means that they had to place a flexible plastic tube down my windpipe in order to maintain an open airway for me to breathe. This moment was the beginning of a very long, tough road for my family and I. My life was changed forever.
The doctors told my Mom that I would probably never walk or even be the same person because of the Traumatic Brain Injury. I had spent over a year in the hospital going to physical, speech, and occupational therapy. While in the hospital I was tutored so that I was able to graduate high school with my class. After I was able to live home I continued to go for therapy for over two years. I had gone to Suffolk Community College and earned my Associates degree from 2005-2008. When completed I decided that I wanted to go away to college to live on campus, so I moved upstate to Pace University in Westchester and graduated with a bachelors degree in Technology Systems. It has taken a lot of determination and hard work to get where I am today. This does not count all of the surgeries that I had to have.
I am presently living in Long Island , I graduated from Pace University my MASTERS DEGREE in Computer Science. Going out and telling my story is very important to me for I feel that no one should have to go through what I went through, and if I can prevent just one person from making the same mistake, well then I did a great job, I can say that I saved some ones life.