I actually had kind of one of those crazy experiences where when I hit, it was black out excruciating pain, and then white out absence of pain, and the subconscience thought that I want to go back.

I’m a Southern girl. I like when they open the door and pull out a chair. I’m really into a man’s man.

I swim all the time at night - I've always been a water girl. It's a black-bottom pool and my pool light was out, and as I've done a thousand times I just kind of did a little seal dive. I saw a huge bright light and I literally thought, That's it.

When you choose to overcome something that could paralyze people, you have the choice to either let that happen or use that as a stepping-stone to something new and different in the future.

I want to help others 'think first' before diving into a pool or lake to prevent these types of life-changing accidents. I know I'm in a very fortunate minority and hope my story inspires both adults and children to be more careful.

I love hearing stories about, you know, people who are overcoming challenges in their life. And when you experience hardships, you can either fold or rally, and just by a paradigm shift in your belief system.

Ive been a swimmer and a diver for quite a while. It was something that I think I got too comfortable with, and I dove into my black-bottomed pool and hit the slope from the shallow end to the deep end. And I had a chin to chest paralyzing break.