{Karlton Bontrager}

Today, January 4 2004, is the exact one and a half year anniversary of my serious snowboarding accident in New Zealand. Since I was on the other side of the international dateline at the time, my accident date is July 5th, 2002, but that is equivalent to USA July 4th.

I think it is remarkable how far I have come in the last 1-½ years! I remember when I was bedridden and weighed a paltry 138 pounds. Since then I have climbed to a healthy weight of 190 pounds, and I’ve accomplished various other milestones. I don’t wish to pat myself on the back, but I do want to keep the readership of my website informed of my current progress.

At the end of the summer of 2003, I decided I wanted to return to school. I chose to study at the Community College of Rhode Island to become an Occupational Therapist (OT). My reason is that I’d like to be able to help other victims of similar accidents in their respective recoveries. Further, in the future I want to be able to look back on my accident and see that it played a positive role in the direction of my life. Before my traumatic brain injury, I had no intention of becoming a rehabilitation therapist. But considering all the work I’ve done and the progress I’ve made, I feel that becoming an OT is a reasonable and positive direction to head.

The course I took this fall, Introduction to Occupational Therapy, was the first prerequisite for entering the OT program. It was also my first academic experience in three years. It required daily memorization of medical terminology to prepare for weekly quizes. I enlisted the help of therapists, parents, and friends to work out a study schedule, develop learning strategies, and drill the terms into memory. I was pleased to earn a solid “B” for the course.

The spring semester begins in two more weeks on January 19. I am enrolled to take Human Anatomy, the second prerequisite course in the OT program of study. I aim to do as well this semester.