Girl interrupted

Life isn’t always what we expect it to be.That being said ....let me start from the beginning. My name is Chelsea. I’m a single mother of a three year old named Wyatt. I am a quadriplegic woman in a wheelchair. I suffered a catastrophic spinal cord injury 4 years ago while pregnant with my son. When I was 24 years old on a cold and rainy February morning I found out I was going to be a mom. This was news to me because it wasn’t planned. I was overjoyed, but man was I scared. I was in a new relationship, and didn’t really know where I stood with him. I had always planned/dreamed of a family of my own. I was younger and wanted to go on adventures in jungles, go to far away lands because I wanted to get as far away from Orange County as possible. Why did I want to leave so bad? Because I was hungry for a new surroundings. I wanted to meet new people and figure out where my place in the world was going to be. Be Careful what you wish for. Things were obviously progressing quickly with my new relationship. The idea of a baby on the way jump started things. That can be a good thing, and it can also be a bad thing. In my case it was not so great because I put my trust in the wrong person. Wyatt’s father ultimately ended leaving me pregnant and paralyzed in the hospital. My biggest weakness is my heart because I always wear it on my sleeve. I am always trying to find the best in people. Plans were to continue my cosmetology career until Wyatt was born. Later take some time to create my family with my significant other. There’s always an unknown with relationships, gosh I know that, because not even a year before that I was in a relationship with someone so controlling that sometimes I wasn’t even allowed to see my friends and family. So you can imagine my fear of starting a family with someone I had only known for three months... whoops. But that doesn’t matter, because what I cared about most was Wyatt and creating an amazing life for myself and for my unborn son. I was willing to make many sacrifices, and that included traveling, living abroad, even putting my cosmetology career on hold. I was all in. Creating a better life for my son was everything to me. That’s why it’s hard to write this because there’s a battlefield between now and then… I had a catastrophic accident. It has taken me years to heal from. Not only physically but mentally as well. And it wasn’t just me, I had to worry about my pregnancy. I had to put my trust into people, doctors, nurses and friends. Again, life isn’t always what we expect it to be. Especially for a 28-year-old woman in a wheelchair trying to just re-learn life. The last thing I want is for people to feel sorry for me. My passion and goal is to create and inspire. One of the best things about my job before the accident was making people feel better about themselves. Providing positive reinforcement when maybe you weren’t feeling 100%. I’m really lucky because I have an amazing family that helps support me and helps me provide a healthy happy family for Wyatt to grow up in. I think that’s one of the hardest things to swallow is that it takes a village to raise a child. It is not always what you imagined it to be when you’re creating your reality. My mom has taught me strength when looking into the eye of the storm. Even when everything around you seems like a vortex of disarray and chaos you just have to breathe. So...in light of all of the fear with COVID-19-I want everyone to remember to breath.