Hello, my name is Ellen Emilia Becker. Although, I am a unique, kind, sincere, funny, down-to-earth, focused, and a very determined individual, these are the characteristics that have gotten me through many challenges I have had to deal with. The thing that makes me stand out is that I broke my neck when I was 18 as a passenger in a devastating car accident the summer after graduating high school. It changed my life. I went from living an able-bodied life of a carefree 18 year old about to leave for college to living life paralyzed in a wheelchair spending the next 6 months in a hospital recovering. 
For the most part my life had revolved around playing softball, enjoying friends and family, and going to school, but mostly it was playing or practicing softball.  In the first grade I started playing T-ball, which advanced from mush-ball, to softball, and then to serious fast-pitch softball. I had tried a few other sports as well, but softball had all my interests. When you hear about athletes who eat, sleep, and breathe a sport, I’d say that was me with one exception, I made time to be with friends. I lived in Ohio and played softball year round from summer travel ball to spring high school softball and all the seasons in between. During my senior year in high school, I was recruited to play college softball as a pitcher; the one thing I’ve worked my whole life to do. However, within a few weeks before leaving for college I was in a car accident that would change my life forever.
The car accident was devastating with the driver passing away, another passenger suffering a few broken bones along with the trauma, and myself severely injured as a passenger in the back seat. I was life flighted to the hospital with a broken neck (C5/6), a dislocated hip, and a serious head injury that left me in a coma and on a breathing machine fighting for my life. I was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury (TBI) which left me with no memory of the accident and in a very serious low cognitive state for almost a year. I remained in acute rehabilitation for nearly 6 months trying to recover.  I am very blessed to say that my brain injury has healed 100%, however, my broken neck which was surgically repaired with rods and screws, left me paralyzed from the chest down including loss of function in my hands and fingers, spots in my triceps, and without everyday bodily functions like using the restroom. 
When I returned home from the hospital, I continued out-patient occupational and physical therapy while also doing daily workouts with my physical trainer from softball for about a year. It was then that a few things changed in my life.  My mother and I decided to move to Florida as I felt my best recovery options were there by attending NextStep Orlando for activity-based therapy to strengthen my able-body, recover the un-abled and figure out how to handle my “new” body along the way.  While I believe I will one day make a full recovery with God, exercise, and science, I must continue to keep my body healthy through neurological recovery methods at NextStep Orlando, staying active at home, and living a healthy lifestyle. 
Although recovery from paralysis is definitely a priority to me, it is not my only priority. Through the last twelve years I’m learning who I am more as a person without relying on my physical abilities and where I want to go with my life. 
As for my long term goals I still have so much to figure out, but my one major priority is to become as independent as I can while regaining function and maintaining my overall health and well-being.