Ever play knockout? Ever win knockout? Ever done both of those things while wearing a hot pink cast?

Hi. I'm C/2Lt Taylor Guthrie, a second year male sophomore cadet in the AFJROTC program at River Ridge High School, New Port Richey, Florida. A few months ago, 3 October to be exact, I was playing a football game in the Salvation Army Football League when I broke my left leg while defending a pass. Laying there on the ground, quite a few things ran through my mind, including what was going to happen at school when I got back. "What am I going to do about getting to school?" "How am I going to get around?" "Who's going to carry my backpack?" "Will I still be able to wear my uniform?" "What will my friends think?" These and many more questions awaited to be answered on that long anticipated day.

That first Monday back, I arrived to school to find me welcomed back warmly and with open arms...literally. People left and right kept on wanting to give me hugs. So much so that it got tiring by the end of the day with people still wanting to hug me. I knew I had quite a few friends, but this was astonishing! Not only were people I rarely said hi to asking me how I felt, they were asking me if they could do anything to help me. It really just blew me away. Now I'm not the kind of person who milks people for all that they will give. Quite the opposite. I chose to do things on my own if I thought I could do them. I opened my shared locker that was on the ground, opened and held the door for people, and played knockout in ROTC, all as if nothing had ever happened. The only thing I couldn't do was carry my own backpack. But every day I thanked the person who carried it for me, up until the day I got the cast taken off. But other than that, I pushed forward as though I had two perfectly legit legs and that nothing could stop me

As it turned out, I got excused from wearing my uniform until I had both legs back. Unlike most people who would have enjoyed not having to wear their uniform for two and a half months, I was disappointed. Don't think of me as the cadet who sucks up to their commander by writing this, I just like wearing the uniform and am proud to do so. But the one thing I could still do, (to my commanders' displeasure), was do drill. Being the Deputy Commander of our drill team, I felt obligated to still go to the practices. And after a couple of weeks on crutches, I actually joined in and practiced with my team. While marching the crutches were my left foot, and my right was my right. That way I could march and stay on step. Eventually I got the nerve to finally try out a game of knockout. To mine and everybody else's surprise, I actually won! This amazing feat of perseverance continued on with my hot pink half cast (my original one was a full leg cast). Not only was I winning, I was winning repeatedly and with no contest. After a few days of "crutch-drill," I started drilling while walking on my cast (with doctor's permission to gradually start putting weight on it of course). But drill wasn't the full extent of my crippled abilities.

Along with drill, I also played basketball while being inhibited by the cast. Well, sort of. After school I go to an Adult-Ed class twice a week just for fun. We basically go outside and do PT and sports along with writing assignments every other day. Unfortunately, because of my cast, I wasn't able to participate in the athletic activities, and I was supposed to do "alternate writing assignments." I was determined to go outside with everybody else and not stay inside alone for two hours. So I walked/crutched out to the basketball courts with my classmates which in of itself is enough exercise for a day (nearly 1/4 mile.) So after a couple of weeks, my parents bought me a wheelchair to get me out to the field. Wheeling around, I had fun shooting and trying to make three pointers - try doing that from a wheelchair! One day I jokingly asked my colonel if he'd pay me a dollar if I made the threes with a hook shot. You can guess the rest! That was a proud dollar earned!

Believe me, it ain't easy. But I'd say, just keep at it and you'll eventually make it. Keep at anything long enough, and you'll come through. Trust me. Don't let anything stop you from doing something that you know that you can do.

And that's my tale of my hot pink cast adventures.