Get To Know Me Part One

I'm just going to jump right in and let you get a quick overview of who I am, and what my life has been like these past 19 (almost 20) years. I guess the first thing that I should start out with is that I was born in Florida, and I've lived here my entire life. I grew up with two older sisters and divorced parents, some may think that is the worst thing that can happen to a child but in my case I had an awesome childhood, even though my parents were separated. My parents came together for birthdays and holidays just for us kids, they always made an effort to be there for my sisters and I. I was very close to my grandparents as a child because when my dad would come get me on the weekends from my mom's house that is where my dad would take me first. I absolutely adored my grandparents and loved visiting them as much as possible. In my mind and looking back on my life I was never really a "kid" I always had a hunger for knowledge. I was one of those annoying children always asking why, and wanting to know more on just about everything. I had a very curious mind and I needed to question everything to help me learn and understand things better. As a child I was so passionate about animals from a really early age. My father always had horses and dogs and cows and I just loved them. My dream as a child was to become a veterinarian, and work with as many animals as possible. I had such vivid dreams and I just knew one day in some way, shape or form I would be working with animals doing something I loved. Skipping forward to about when I was in fourth grade I moved to live with my dad and step mother (at the time, she is no longer married to my father). I loved being able to see my dad everyday but I really missed my mom. I would go visit my mom every other weekend and on holidays, such as spring break or summer. In my fifth grade year my mom came and picked me up from my dad's (he lived three hours away from my mom) for spring break. I was so excited to be able to spend a full week with my mom, on our way back to her house we got into a really bad car accident. I don't want to take any seriousness away from it but to make it short and to the point I was thrown from the car and things were really bad. My mom called my dad and he showed up at the wreck where I was laying in the middle of the road dying. I hit my head really hard so I was repeating everything and they thought I possibly had brain damage. Luckily since there was traffic on the road there was and off duty EMT who helped keep me stable until the helicopter could get there to airlift me. My mom and dad sat with me trying to talk to me while I laid pretty much lifeless in the road. I then told my parents that "I am going home," to which they replied "as soon as we get you to the hospital." I told them no that I needed to go home right now and then I died, now when I say died I mean they had to bring me back to life, which obviously was successful. Now I'm not sure what happened from the time "I died" until the time I woke up to being stabbed with an IV needle and my clothes being cut off my body. They say my dad was screaming in my face for me to wake up but I never heard him. I feel like to this day that car accident has taught me so much, and only being in the fifth grade I learned really quick that life is so short and it does not spare anyone, young or old. I was very fortunate to have lived and received a second chance on this Earth.

This is where I'm going to stop because this post is getting quite long, but I will do a part two and pick back up with the other half of my life.

As always thank you for reading and experiencing my journey,

Caroline