In Their Words

John Manison is an 18-year-old freshman at Ashland University in Ohio. He is dedicated to his rehabilitation at Kennedy Krieger’s International Center for Spinal Cord Injury and focused on achieving therapy goals en route to living his life without a wheelchair.

When I started at Kennedy Krieger Middle School, I was very frustrated and angry because I did not think I needed to be here. Slowly, though, I began to see that Kennedy Krieger was the right school for me. But it took time. Today I realize that I needed to be here to get the education I needed, because I might not have done as well anywhere else.

There was broken glass and debris everywhere, and I could hear sirens in the distance. Just moments before I was sleeping in the car as we drove home from a family vacation in Florida. I was jolted awake as the car flipped over, and I could feel myself being thrown around as if I were in a washing machine. I was strangely calm, lying half in and half out of the backseat - until the paramedic checked me for injuries and I couldn't feel anything. I began to panic. When I asked if I was paralyzed, he wouldn't answer.

I've always been an athlete. When I was younger, I pitched the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) World Series twice. After high school, I played baseball for the University of Arkansas at Monticello. But, despite those achievements, I never imagined how much physical strength I would need in a wheelchair. Late one Saturday night two years ago, I got on my fourwheeler to visit a friend, but I never made it to his apartment.

There's just something about the solar system that fascinates me. It started when I was about five years old. I couldn't get enough of books and computer programs about planets, moons, and stars. I was even interested in model rockets because, in life-size form, they created a path to the great Milky Way.

Every month, I meet my best friends for dinner where we get to catch up with each other. Then we go to Circle of Friends, a part of Kennedy Krieger's Brightside mentoring program, where we learn about friendship and how to socialize with other people. I am 25 years old, and I have Down syndrome, which means that I was born with 22 chromosomes instead of 21.

The first few years of my life, I didn't know much about stability or security. I was in and out of foster care, living with six different families by the time I was eight years old. Then I met Bea and Larry Thomas, who became my foster parents.