If not for that day in January 2003, Andrea Wilson '08 might have never touched Princeton. She would have swung, flipped and soared in the air at extraordinary speeds, as a member of Cornell University's gymnastics team.
But these days, she is confined to a seat, paralyzed from the waist down. She navigates Princeton's campus in a wheelchair, with the help of a service dog named Bradley.
Sitting on her bed in Forbes College recently, Wilson didn't appear disabled, her long legs dangling over the edge of the bed.
The former gymnast from Sioux Falls, S.D., tries to treat life like nothing has changed. She still has extraordinary upper body strength, still has her boyfriend (now her fiancé) and still wants to be an obstetrician.
Despite all this, there are constant reminders life has changed.
"It makes me annoyed when people in my situation complain, when there are people who are [quadriplegic]," Wilson, 19, said, emphasizing she does not feel trapped by her condition. "You just move on, however you are."
The reminders come in many forms: her reliance on a service dog and a wheelchair, being carried up to her third floor Forbes room when she arrived on campus to a broken elevator, her fiancé moving from school to school to be by her side and most recently, her attempt — ultimately unsuccessful — to go on Outdoor Action (OA).
She made it to OA for the first day — becoming the first physically disabled person to take part in the freshmen bonding experience. Students with visual and hearing impairments have participated before.
With an inflatable mattress, mountain bike wheels on her wheelchair and Bradley, a golden retriever and yellow Labrador mix, Wilson set out on Aug. 29 with her OA group. Her trip was based at Princeton-Blairstown Center, an outdoor option for people not experienced in camping.
It soon became clear the trip — despite preparations to adapt for Wilson's disability — wasn't going to work. She left on the second day.
"Unfortunately, the accommodations we had did not adequately meet her needs, so she came back to campus early from the trip," said Rick Curtis '79, director of the Outdoor Action Program.
As the first day unfolded, problems kept arising. The chairlift to the bus that was to bring her group from Princeton to the campsite got stuck. A long time passed as her group waited for a second bus.
After a 90-minute drive to Blairstown, the group hiked a few hundred yards to the campsite.
The activities of the first day — from the what's-your-name games to the trip to the tent — were straightforward but left Wilson exhausted.
"We barely did anything that first day and my arms were dead from just getting to the tent," she said later. "The trails were more of a hassle than enjoyable."
The exhaustion was exacerbated by the troubles Bradley faced on the trip. He had been in a car for several days on the journey from South Dakota and wanted to return to his routine.
"Bradley was also confused why we were back in the bus after the drive from South Dakota," Wilson said.
What ultimately convinced Wilson to leave was the inaccessibility of bathroom facilities.
At Blairstown, the bathrooms are up a steep hill, and at night Wilson needed help to get there.
It wasn't just the hard journey to use the bathroom that convinced her to leave, though. It was that she would have to burden others.
"She's a great girl, very independent. She wants to do things on her own," said Eleanor Barkhorn '06, one of Wilson's OA leaders.
On the morning of the second day, an OA support van picked Wilson up and brought her back to campus.
"We were all really sorry that she had to leave. She's such a dynamic, interesting, funny person," Barkhorn said. "I was really impressed by how committed she was to meeting people and participating in OA."
Before Princeton
Matt West received a telephone call a half hour after the accident happened in January 2003.
He had started dating Wilson in their sophomore year at O'Gorman High School. They were already in love. And if anything, the accident deepened that love.
"When I found out about her injury, I was just in shock," West said.
Wilson was practicing on the uneven bars in Sioux Falls on Jan. 23, 2003, when she fell onto uneven mats and broke two of her vertebrae, severely stretching her spinal cord. She was rushed into surgery.
"I waited in the hospital while she had surgery that night," West said. "It was 2 or 3 a.m. when she came out of surgery. At that point, she was so confused; she asked me why she was staying overnight."
The answer changed the course of both their lives.
In high school, Wilson was an accomplished athlete, setting school records in gymnastics and winning a state title in the high jump.
Wilson planned to attend Cornell, where she was recruited for gymnastics.
The sport was "her life," she said. She spent 25 hours each week flipping, jumping and swinging.
But her body, for the most part, lay still in a Sioux Falls hospital for 10 days after the accident. She was later transferred to a Colorado hospital specializing in spinal cord injuries, where she stayed for two months.
With her went West.
West rearranged his high school classes so he'd have three-day weekends. He'd drive 11 hours across the midwestern United States to visit her on most weekends.
"I put school on hold for the next few weeks [after the accident] and changed my schedule so that I could do a 'service project' instead of taking classes. Andrea was my service project," he said. "Basically I didn't care about school because I had more important things going on."
West had planned to attend Cortland at the State University of New York while Wilson was at Cornell. But he adjusted his plans to accommodate her life.
When fall 2003 came around, West attended the University of South Dakota (USD) while Wilson recovered at home. Wilson, knowing that her dream of being on the Cornell gymnastics team was over, selected Princeton.
Princeton does not have a gymnastic team.
"I was only going to Cornell because of gymnastics," said Wilson, who deferred a year before coming to Princeton. "Cornell's campus is very hard to get around" in a wheelchair.
"I knew that anywhere I'd go I could make what I want to make," West said. "I just stayed in South Dakota because she was there."
As she recovered, carpet was replaced with tile and a ramp was built to make her home wheelchair accessible. But by spring, Wilson said she was "sick of" being home and enrolled in classes at USD.
Now, West has followed her to New Jersey. He is a student of art at Rutgers and visits Wilson almost each weekend.
"He's been awesome; he came to Rutgers to be with me," Wilson said.
On a recent weekend, Wilson and West sat in her Forbes bedroom. Wilson rested on her bed, reading quietly for class. West, with his beard and henna necklace, played video games.
They reminisced about high school, playfully arguing about the size of their class. She said 100 students; he argued there were more. They went back and forth over the number, smiling at each other the whole time.
Life on campus
Most days, Wilson finishes classes by 2 p.m. Then the routine begins. She works out on a bike in her room that automatically moves her legs and features a pair of shorts with electrodes that contract her leg muscles. She must also stand for one hour each day to retain bone mass.
Bradley joined her only a few days before OA started. He had trained with her for more than a year at a facility.
Bradley accompanies Wilson to class and carries her books in a custom backpack. He is also trained to retrieve the telephone and can even pull Wilson through the snow.
As Wilson navigates campus, she strives to maintain a normal life.
"Andrea's upper body strength and dexterity is amazing. It makes a huge difference in her ability to navigate campus," said Maria Flores-Mills, assistant dean of undergraduate students and a coordinator of services for disabled students.
Forbes College is "the best residential college for students with mobility impairments," Flores-Mills said.
Wilson's courses are all assigned to wheelchair-accessible buildings. In her chemistry class, a table is being ordered that is lower to the ground so that Wilson can conduct laboratory exercises.
Wilson is enthusiastic about Princeton. She has enjoyed her classes, made new friends and liked living on the East Coast.
Even gymnastics is still on her mind.
"I love to watch [gymnastics]. Really, the things you learn are more valuable than actually doing the sport," Wilson said.
But she cannot deny that something is missing, something that will always remind her that life is different.
"The athletic part – the part that I can no longer participate – is the only thing that really bothers me," she said, as a shade of sadness emerged on her face.
Soon the sadness disappeared. Wilson sat in her bedroom with West and Bradley — two loyal companions and constants in her life.
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