We may be on the tail end of graduation SZN, but we’d be remiss to not acknowledge Khalia Carter‘s story.
This 18-year-old who hails from Fort Myers, Florida has overcome the odds and walked across the graduation stage about a month after sustaining a traumatic brain injury (TBI).
High school senior Khalia Carter missed part of her final year after a tragic car accident. But she was determined to make it to one event — graduation — even if it was against the odds for her to walk across the stage. pic.twitter.com/L5VgfHd0nz
— CBS News (@CBSNews) June 3, 2022
In April, Carter was rear-ended by a motorcycle, which was being operated by a drunken driver whose blood alcohol content (BAC) was “three times over the alcohol limit.”
The impact from the collision sent Carter’s car escalating down the road before crashing into a ditch. On top of leaving Carter with a TBI, the accident also left her with a speech impairment and mobility disorder, among other injuries.
“Some days [are] very hard and some days I just get emotional. And I’m not even an emotional person,” the 18-year-old noted. “This journey has been a lot and dealing with a brain injury is probably one of the worst things you can go through [because] your brain is really sensitive.”
To help with her injuries, Carter went on to undergo an intensive array of different therapies.
“From what I know and what everybody else has told me, Khalia has been so positive and so determined from the beginning,” her mother, Shawnda Cook, said. “Because she set her goals every day [and] has to achieve different things every day, that helped speed up the process for her.”
Khalia Carter, a high school senior, was hit by a drunken driver and sustained a TBI. She has had to relearn how to walk, and soon she hopes to walk across the stage at her high school graduation. https://t.co/gYIKYBBKae
— Brain Injury Association of Virginia 🧠 (@biavirginia) May 18, 2022
This determination stemmed from a goal Carter had in mind during her recovery: participating in her high school graduation by strutting across the stage.
“I was determined. Nobody was going to stop me from doing that,” Carter recalled. “As soon as it happened, I told my mom in the hospital that I’m still going to go to graduation.”
“After I was getting stronger every day, I decided, maybe it’d be surprising if I shocked everybody and walked across the stage,” she continued. “So, I pushed every day as hard as I can and gave 110% every day at therapy, to try to be able to walk across the stage.”
Carter’s determination ultimately paid off, as she accomplished her coveted goal May 21, just about a month after the accident.
“This was such a huge milestone. Khalia had so many odds against her,” Cook said. “It’s hard [for her] to be in a big, crowded environment and so for her to take the initiative to go and be around such a large crowd was huge for her.”
“To see her take the initiative to do it and walk across that stage by herself? It was amazing,” she added.
18-year-old Khalia Carter beats the odds to walk at graduation after car accident via @GMA https://t.co/Nk51aVwbVp
— Stephanie. (@qsteph) June 13, 2022
As for what the future holds for this Fort Myers High School graduate, she plans to continue her path to recovery and attend Georgia Southern University this autumn, where she hopes to major in either education or journalism.
“I don’t want to change my mind because I know that it’s always been a dream, so I’m going to try to stick to it and try to make it happen,” Carter said.
Shoutout to Khalia Carter; we wish her the best of luck in her future endeavors.
