I went to prom expecting nothing, just another face no one noticed in a crowded room. I didn’t know one dance would lead me to a truth about my past I’d never even questioned before.I’ve been using a wheelchair since I was 10.That’s the year everything changed. My parents and I were in a terrible car crash. I don’t remember much from the worst night of my life, just flashes, sounds, and then waking up in a hospital bed with my grandma holding my hand.My parents didn’t make it.After that, it was just Grandma Ruth and me.My Grandma raised me alone. She never treated me as if I were fragile, despite my inability to walk. I never let myself feel sorry for what I’d lost, continued living, and never complained.By the time senior year rolled around and prom came up, I wanted to go.Not because I expected anything big to happen. I just didn’t want to sit at home wondering what it would’ve been like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grandma and I went dress shopping two weeks before. She pushed me through every aisle as if it were the most important mission of her life.”You’re not settling,” she said, holding up a navy blue dress. “You’re picking something that makes you feel like yourself.”I rolled my eyes, but I listened.I chose a simple dress. Something that felt right.”You’re not settling.”The night of prom, music spilled out from the gym doors, loud and steady. I sat in Grandma’s car for a moment, watching couples walk in together.Then I told myself, You didn’t come this far to turn around now.So, with her assistance, I went in.At first, it wasn’t bad. A few people smiled, and some greeted me.But it didn’t take long for me to notice the truth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I went to prom expecting nothing, just another face no one noticed in a crowded room. I didn’t know one dance would lead me to a truth… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":49685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"views":43,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49684"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49686,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49684\/revisions\/49686"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/49685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}