If you’ve ever been to advising at Heavener School of Business, you may have seen junior business student Laura Delaney greet you with a warm smile. However, behind Laura’s positivity and sense of humor is a life-changing incident: a scooter accident.
On September 14, 2015, Laura was riding her scooter from her apartment complex to CVS when she hit a pothole, launching her over her handlebars onto the pavement, right on her face. Although she has gone through two extensive surgeries, physical and mental trauma, and a never-ending healing process, she has grown as a person and maintains a positive perspective of life.
HerCampus (HC): What serious injuries did you initially have?
Laura Delaney (LD): I had multiple fractures in my face, a torn ligament in my knee and a lung contusion.
HC: Did you realize what was going on when you woke up in the hospital?
LD: Not really. I saw my friends crying, but I wasn’t really sure why. It wasn’t until I woke up the next morning that I saw what had happened to me. I’ll always remember looking in the mirror that next morning. My feeling was indescribable.
HC: How did the accident change your way of thinking?
LD: Before the accident, I was so concerned with how I looked. I only saw my flaws and always wanted to change certain aspects about myself. The accident made me a lot more open-minded, and it gave me this certain realization of “Wow, I’m so grateful.”
HC: How did you keep up with your academics?
LD: During both the fall and spring semesters, I had to drop about half my classes. I went home a lot for surgeries and to be with my family, but my professors were very accommodating overall.
HC: How did people react to seeing you after the accident?
LD: For the first few months, the area around one of my eyes was stitched up wrong, causing my eye to look misshaped and more like a slit. People would definitely stare at me, and I felt like people pitied me more.
HC: What was it like getting back into your regular routine?
LD: I tried to become the young lady who I once was without realizing that I needed to move on. I needed to become a new version of myself. I didn’t go in public for a while, but my mom always encouraged me to not be so self-conscious. I returned back to UF and pretended like everything was back to normal. When I looked in the mirror, I had to learn to just ignore the physical differences and see the person I really was.
HC: What are your future plans?
LD: I will be graduating from UF in the summer of 2017 and starting my career in human resources.