Part 5: Kentucky Gas Station

August 1, 2017.Reading time 4 minutes.

I urinated all over myself in front of four mothers and their small children, whom they clutched to themselves in horror, in a Pilot Travel Center gas station restroom just over the Kentucky State line in 2005. Ana looked on in stunned disbelief as the dark spot spread down my jeans. The warm liquid traveled […]

Part 4: Doctor’s Orders

July 15, 2017.Reading time 4 minutes.

Mondays are rounds at Shepherd. My attending neurosurgeon, Dr. Murray, comes into each room on the SCI floor at 8am to review progress, ask questions, answer questions, and tailor our medical care for the upcoming week. He is accompanied by whichever resident happens to be doing his neuro rotation with us at the time. My […]

Part 3: Brick Tile Floor

July 1, 2017.Reading time 2 minutes.

One week after my injury, I was flown by a fixed-wing medical jet to a specialty critical care hospital for spinal cord injury in Atlanta – Shepherd Center. I spent 9 long and amazing weeks there, of working my ass off, physically and mentally, all day, from 6am-6pm, 6 days a week, to learn a […]

Part 2: To Be or Not To Be

June 15, 2017.Reading time 4 minutes.

When I first came to a full understanding of the severity of my injuries in the intensive care unit, everything was still burry. My vision was of colors, light, and movement alone, like an impressionist painting. Words made sense, but only at a strange instinctual level whose sole purpose was to differentiate small talk from […]

Part 1: The First 48

June 1, 2017.Reading time 8 minutes.

“Cheryl, stop chewing on your tubes.” A disembodied male voice speaks to me out of the darkness somewhere near my feet. I realize I am chewing on something soft and pliable in my mouth. It sticks together when I bite down in a not unpleasant way. It is difficult to breathe. “Cheryl, you’re in the […]

Inspiration by Accident

March 23, 2017.Reading time 22 minutes.

(From TEDx Furman University, “Shatter” – March 21, 2015) On March 29, 2005, I survived a serious car accident. After a long night of dedicated alcoholic consumption, I trusted someone who said he was “totally cool to drive”. He wasn’t. And less than 48 hours later, I woke up in an intensive care unit. I […]

It’s None of My Business

February 10, 2017.Reading time 7 minutes.

I admit it. I’m a Facebook junkie. But I very rarely look at my newsfeed. I’ve tagged pretty much all the people whose lives I actually kind of care about, so I just check my notifications. And every time I click “Home”, I’m reminded why I don’t do it that often. Yesterday, a chick with […]

Are you there, God? It’s me…Don’t hang up.

January 13, 2017.Reading time 8 minutes.

I turned the TV on Tuesday morning, and a female evangelist was delivering a sermon designed for women. She would speak for about three minutes at a time, and then follow with her pitch: “Ask, and ye shall receive!” Over and over again, like some mind-altering mantra, and the crowd would shout right along with […]

Principal’s Office

March 8, 2016.Reading time 6 minutes.

As co-Editor of the Whiteland Community High School newspaper my Junior year (1992-93), I was given a little freedom to write some pretty controversial editorials, and I exploited the opportunity. Because there were two of us, I wrote the editorial only every other issue. It was probably better that way. By the fifth edition that […]

I’m Not a Good Mom

February 4, 2016.Reading time 4 minutes.

I was not one of those little girls who dreamed of finding her Prince Charming and living happily ever. I didn’t want the white picket fence, husband, 2.5 children, and a dog. It all sounded so incredibly…comfortable. I don’t feel bad in saying that I never wanted to be a mom – I didn’t. I’d […]