Molly – How have your friendships changed?

Most of my friends were great after my injury.  They were around the hospital all the time, they were around when I got home, and we just hung out and figured out new ways to do things that we used to do.  There were a couple people that I lost touch with, people that I was friends with before that I didn’t really stay in touch with after.  I think some people were just kind of uncomfortable with the situation; they didn’t know what to do, and it was hard for them to adapt to that.  Maybe it was hard for them to see me the way that I was.  But, most of my friends were awesome and the friends that I did stay close throughout that time, I’m still really close to.  A lot of those people are like family to me now.  I think I was worried going to college that meeting people that didn’t know me before my injury was going to be weird, and there was just going to be this whole part of my life that they were missing out on, and I’d never be able to be as close to them because they don’t understand what had happened, and everything I went though and all of that.  And that didn’t turn out to be true at all.  It’s been pretty easy for me to talk about my injury, especially to people who don’t know anything about it.  And, I’ve made friends at school that I’m really close to now; I’m as close to them as people that I knew before my injury.  So, that hasn’t been a barrier to becoming close to people.