The First LinkBy: Kristen Sell

June 7th, 2007 I graduated from high school with a great

plan for my future.

Seven days later, on a camping trip with my family, I was kicked by a horse and shattered my tibia.

I was scared I wouldn’t make it.

Surgeons inserted a rod and four screws into my right leg. They also found out that my swollen right wrist was full of

badly pulled ligaments. I spent the rest of that summer with a cast on my arm sitting in a wheelchair.

My wrist swollen to almost the size of my knee

I was scared I would never walk again.

Laying in the hospital after my first surgery

The stitches in my knee

I was scared that nothing would ever be the same.

• Obviously, I made it through.• I am more than able to walk, now.

• Nothing is really the same as it was before my surgery.

• I am more than okay with the changes, though. Things change and I have no

control over that. Life has taken me down a completely different path, but I am

confident that it is the right path.

ssd

My leg, today. My scars are barely visible.

June 14th, 2007Seven days after my high school graduation

and the first link in an unending chain of events that would lend a hand in molding me into the adult I continue to become.