 "Photo: Derrick Tuskan / Senior Staff Photographer")
Take the saying, "It's the little things in life that matter." Call it cliché, but there's something about a spontaneous lifestyle that enriches life in small, yet significant, ways.
For 21-year-old political science junior Rachelle Taylor, impulse is something she has learned to live without. Since her snowboarding accident in 1999, which left her paraplegic and wheelchair-bound, she's learned to approach life with a refreshingly different worldview.
"I have faced the reality of becoming aware of who I am and how I react (in) certain situations," Taylor said, describing her six-year experience as a paraplegic college student.
She has faced everything from physical to interpersonal barriers as a result of her condition.
"The school, for the most part, is accessible," Taylor said, although she noted Hepner Hall's courtyards and Storm Hall's inconsistent elevator service interfere with accessibility.
Aside from an encounter with a severely overcrowded classroom - an incident that forced her to sit through class on a hard-surface desk, causing acute complications to her condition - the campus and her professors have been accomodating.
Despite her physical limitations, Taylor learned to sit-ski her senior year of high school and went on to become scuba certified her freshman year of college.
"I am a living advertisement for spinal cord injuries," Taylor said. "Everywhere I go, I end up talking about it with someone."
This may contribute to her ambitious dedication to a broad array of activities. She was on the board of directors for Whitney Hope, an organization that coordinates camps for children with disabilities, and currently serves on a similar board at The Fight to Walk Foundation, which provides mentors to recently injured individuals.
"My main passion is accessibility," Taylor said. "It's so frustrating when you're out with your friends and you can't get into a building because there are steps, or you can't use a restroom because the doorway is too narrow."
"I'm pretty involved in helping and educating people in my situation," Taylor said.
Her most recent contribution was a trip to Washington, D.C., last month, where she lobbied for the newly proposed Christopher Reeve Paralysis Act and later spoke in the Washington Plaza Hotel during a planned rally.
Taylor's two-day agenda also included featured speeches at Capitol Hill by Christopher Reeve's widow, Dana Reeve, ex-football star and quadriplegic Marc Buoniconti and leading spinal cord researcher Wise Young.
Juggling an already demanding repertoire of activities, Taylor nevertheless manages to find time for her hobbies, which she describes as "typical girly stuff" - shopping, lying on the beach, reading and traveling.
"I love to swim and work out at Project Walk, where I am re-learning how to walk," she said. "It's truly an amazing place."
Taylor plans to graduate in 2006 and hopes to attend law school on the East Coast. She also wants to continue lobbying and consulting for architects and designers regarding accessibility.
"(I want to) change the way the government does disability, how health care does physical rehabilitation and really make Washington aware of how much improvement there is room for," she said.
Only six years since her snowboarding accident, Taylor exudes optimism in her outlook on life.
"If I had to do it over again, I would," she said. "I have learned so much, and too much good has come from this."
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