Sometimes students can be spotted limping around the halls all day. They have, for a variety of reasons, being injured, and now they must find a way to still move around the building despite their new challenge. As one might imagine, being injured in school would be quite a struggle. 7th graders, Lily and Sylvia both hurt their knees with a torn ACL and torn meniscus in 2019, and both had to make adjustments in order to survive the school day. 

Lily and Sylvia think that they have been treated differently because of their injuries. Sylvia said, “[people in my class] are nicer to me and more careful around me.” Lily said people would offer to carry books and would take careful attention to making her life easier. This was a common trend that both Sylvia and Lily experienced during their injury. However, sometimes the attention Lily drew with her injury was more negative. She shared, “Sometimes people pick on me for faking my injury.” She hated when that happened and felt unwelcome in the school with her injury. Overall though, they both said that people seemed to act more considerate to them despite the time when Lily was falsely accused of faking her injury. 

Lily and Sylvia also both had to deal with some daily challenges that came with their injury. For Sylvia, the greatest struggle was actually just tying her shoes. “I have to bend my knee to tie my shoe and bend it to put my shoe on, which I can’t do because it hurts my knee.” Sometimes people take the simplest things for granted and don’t realize how others’ limited mobility means that they can’t do that seemingly simple task. She also noted that she realized that people take walking for granted, something that no longer came easily to her. 

Although their situation seems horrible, there are some perks to being injured during school. “I can focus on other hobbies,” Lily explained, pointing out the silver lining to being not able to participate in her sports. Lily plays soccer, which is a large part of her life, so while she was “benched”, she filled her time with some new activities that she may not have been able to try while soccer began. She can now try white and blue press, forensics and possibly the play. They both also noted that the elevator was a nice way to relax during their day. This is often the envy of other students, for, after lunch, the notorious stair climb can be very tiring. 

Sylvia concluded, “People have been really nice to me about [my injury] and [my struggles] made me realize how some people have to deal with this for their whole lives.” Being injured can be a great way to see into disabled people’s lives and open a person’s eyes. The limited mobility that comes with physical injuries can help people be more open-minded, having experienced firsthand what disabilities are like. Therefore, when you see people with injuries in the hall, be sure to think about what they’re going through before you judge.