I was stumbling through Instagram earlier today, and came upon a picture of an absolutely gorgeous gay man by the name of Carson Tueller. When I first gazed my eyes at the photo below, the first thing I thought of was "good lord, he is handsome." Then I read the caption that came with the pic, and my focus shifted from how attractive he is to what a warrior this man has been over the past couple of years.
Carson was just your everyday college student, living it up at Weber State University in Utah when tragedy struck him after he became paralyzed from the chest down due to an accident at a trampoline park. This took place shortly before Christmas in 2013.
The accident shattered his C7 vertebrae, with him recalling "I remember…all this anxiety over not being able to move anything and not knowing what’s going on."
The years followed saw an immense change for Carson, as he battled to regain his life in a much more challenging way. He eventually got enough strength to start swimming again, and to play the flute and the piano again, both of which were much harder than they were before.
“I definitely saw improvements. Before, I could just play very slowly, stumbling along. I can play much more fluently now and actually get some of that music that’s inside me out in a way that’s fulfilling,” he said about playing the instruments.
His swimming skills developed so greatly that he was able to take part in several Paralympic events, to which he exclaimed "It can be hard to always feel like the underdog, trying to do something normal, but swimming in the Paralympics, I am normal."
Now, that spirit that he has had for years seems to has carried his way into 2018, with a beautiful post he shared on his Instagram on Thursday. It's good to see someone like Carson is staying as positive and upbeat in a situation that could easily turn him completely the other way, and we can only hope things get better and better for him this year and beyond.