Who Knew?

"I know you're going into work, but I have some bad news."

Those were my mother's shaky words to me nearly four years ago July. The possibilities of what she was going to say next ran threw my mind as fast as lightning. Immediately I thought it concerned a family member. I dreaded to hear anything related.

What seemed like an eternity before I spoke, I asked, "What happened?" (not even a second), she managed to tell me a good friend of mine was in a horrible car accident. Mom continued to say, "Kris broke her back. I just found out myself and thought you might want to call around to find out more." Thankfully, I was parked when she told me the news. My heart was at the pit of my stomach which made me motionless. I was speechless yet had so many questions.

"She what? How? When did this...where did you...who, who told you? Is she okay?" My mother told me Kris broke her back, and I managed to ask if she was okay...Idiot, of course she's not. I frantically called Diana, Kris's roommate and best friend, to find out more details. Things were still uncertain at that point, but I was able to find out that Kris did in fact break her back. She wasn't expected to walk again.

This is a girl whose life is soccer. A girl who is always on the go, always active, skateboarding, running, playing drums with her band, or out and about with friends. She is the life of any room. Her mere presence puts a smile on every face around her, (truly). She has dark brown hair that stretches to her mid back, big hazel eyes, and a smile that is never absent from her face. It's not just her physical beauty but it's her personality that has so much life. If Kris learns when your birthday is, she'll never forget it. There have been days when she and I sat around while I named off friends, and she called back with their birthday. She was right everytime.

That is why if you were to meet her today, this very moment, you would never know she had a permanent steel rode and bolts in her back. You wouldn't know she has a 22 inch scar stretched diagonally from the back of her left ribcage around to the left side of her belly button, or that she knows when it's about to rain because she gets shooting pains up her back. During the winter months, her already constant pain is twice as miserable to bear.

How exactly did this happen to her, you might ask. Early morning July 3rd, 2004, she and four friends where heading home from a weekend camping on the beach. The driver, still intoxicated from the night before, thought it would be funny to speed and drive crazy to give the others a little scare. He succeeded. He lost control, causing the Bronco to roll three times. With the first flip, Tabitha was thrown out of the back window. The second flip, Ricky was flown out and knocked unconscious. (He remained in a comma for days, suffers permanent memory loss, and will never again have long-term memory.) The third flip threw Kris past the Bronco. She could only lay there. She told me that she must have been unconscious for a little while but remembers waking up to see the driver standing over her and asking "Are you okay?" She said, "I think so." He apologized and asked her not to tell anyone he was driving. The boy took off running away from the scene. Yes, he ran. Ran away like a sissy.

There was obviously a lot of drama that followed. One miracle has proven to be a daily motivator and reminder to me, and that is my good friend and roommate of two years, Kris. After being told she would never walk again, she told the doctor she would. She was told she wouldn't be able to attend school in the Fall. Kris believed otherwise. Again and again, the doctor assured her she wouldn't play soccer again. In only four months, she was out of her body cast. You may have seen her walking around campus sophomore year. Yes, fall semester, and the semester the doctors said she would have to skip. Her body cast could be seen from a mile away. It was brightly decorated with neon velcro and full of signatures and notes of encouragement. She was a walking inspiration to everyone that knew her because she had proven to the doctors and so many other individuals that she could do anything she set her mind to. Kris didn't let the doctors words, saying she'd never walk again, lessen her determination to do so.

As the third year anniversary is approaching, a day when so many of us celebrate the survival of everyone in the accident and feel a mutual disgust for the pansy driver, I'm reminded of how much she inspires me. I'm reminded how much she is loved by everyone she meets. Because of Kris, I feel I have no reason to complain about my days. They could be far worse. There is something about her that catches anyone's attention. She is captivating, selfless to no limit. After all the pain and suffering, Kris said she would go through it all again if it prevented someone else having to experience it. Who says that? Only Kris. If only there could be more of her kind in this world, every room in this building would be glowing. Everyone would feel they are loved and cared for by someone special. That is what Kris does daily not because she feels she has to, but because it's who she is. I try to flip on my "Kris switch" when I wake up in the mornings but I, nor anyone else, will ever compare to her greatness.