E-portfoliating

Hi, hello, how's it going? What's the word? What's the scoop? Who's on first? How did we get here? Why did you cut the line? When are the fireworks? Where have all the cowboys gone?

I know it's been a while since I've written in you, web log.

You know how scattered my energies are (I mean, don't you?)

You see, I haven't been writing on the internet lately, aside from on the Columbia Missourian website and in their printed publication as a newspaper reporter (which is connected to why I haven't been writing on the web), the occasional facebook post here and there, and even less occasionally on any number of the other blogs I have scattered across the cyber-universe.

I have been mostly pen and paper these days because I got into a vicious car accident in New Mexico in November of 2009 (It's actually the 8 month anniversary of the accident today).

Enter tangent

You see, I had driven down there with fellow Missouri University's School of Journalism student, Sean madden, in order to gather video interviews and the like at the International Drug Policy Reform Conference.

I have no memory of the accident and little of the conference (aside from the footage and journal entries that I have), but I do know the following things according to eye-witnesses:

I was driving and wearing a seatbelt, which saved my life because the driver's side of my car was demolished.



Apparently (I say this because I don't remember it) I received my very first speeding ticket on the drive home from the conference and the accident occurred in front of an upcoming speed trap.

I was traveling in the left lane with a smaller white SUV in my blind spot. When I slowed to move over to the right lane, I saw the car, jerking the wheel back into my lane.

The officer up ahead at the speed trap said that I fish-tailed for a while and he was hoping that I would pull out of it, however this was not to be- my car went to spin out and the white car (that instead of falling back, seeing me fishtail, attempted to speed ahead of me) t-boned mine. My car flipped over theirs and then six more times into the desert of Moriarty, New Mexico.

My guess is that the people in the other car were probably as distracted that I imagine I was at the upcoming speed trap.

I say this because I had never gotten a speeding ticket before the one I am told that I had received on that trip and knowing myself, this upset me incredibly and I was probably of the opinion that there "was no way I would get another one."

I also say this because apparently the people in the other car had a whole mess of clothes, but no suitcases?
They also tried to claim that Madden's ipod was theirs before my sister confirmed the fact that the phone was, in fact, his.

Whatever the case, a combat army medic named Rafael Garcia was happening through the area with friend, Danny Lopez, just after my accident and decided to turn back in order to see if assistance was needed.

Luckily, he did so because he assisted in locating me (apparently they didn't know that I was even in the vehicle at first).
My car was upside down, my passenger was wandering around obviously in shock, and the driver's side was so crunched that Garcia said the only reason that he could recognize that there was a person inside was from my brown cowboy boots sticking up in the wreckage.

Garcia aided in stabilizing my cervical neck (is that what they're called?) as they removed me from the car in order to keep me from becoming paralyzed.

This is incredible because I did sustain a fracture to the C2 of my neck.

I also broke all but one of the ribs on my left side, my scapula, lacerated my spleen and liver, and punctured my lungs, which collapsed.

Garcia performed CPR on me as I wasn't breathing and I began shallow breathing on my own, but the officer present provided me with critically needed oxygen.

I was helicoptered to the University of New Mexico hospital and would, days later, receive a tracheotomy for my repeatedly collapsing lungs.

Exit tangent

So, why is this important?

Aside from the fact that I almost died, my accident is the reason that brings me to "blog" (I will forever hate that word) to you today.

When I got into the wreck, I was getting ready to report for the Missourian over Thanksgiving Break and afterward, I needed to spend the next semester healing my ass up, which I think that I've been doing a great job of.

My bones healed like the Wolverine and I no longer have a hole in my throat (though I do have a gross scar) and I am on schedule to graduate this December from Mizzou with my photo-journalism bachelor's granted I pass all of my classes this upcoming semester and finish the four incompletes I have from this past falls' classes by November.

This brings me to what I am doing right now- Completing my newspaper reporting incomplete.

As part of the class, I will need to have an e-portfolio of the work/blogging that I do of/about my experience at the Columbia Missourian and THAT BRINGS ME VERY FINALLY -taking some big breaths- (those are important according to my editor, Liz Brixey......she is right) to my business here tonight. I am going to start officially on building that e-portfolio RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW.