I’m Brian Peahuff, a 46-year-old incomplete quadriplegic, who has dealt with a lot of stereotyping and faced a lot of challenges for nearly 28 years to get to where I am today.
Three months after I graduated from Broome High School, I was the passenger in a car accident that ultimately led to me having a brain stem stroke and my entire body was paralyzed. I was later classified as “incomplete,” because I regained some movement in all of my limbs, but I was still dependent on a motorized wheelchair at all times. And to this day.
I eventually went back to school and received my Associate of Arts from Spartanburg Technical College and then Bachelor of Arts from the University of South Carolina at Spartanburg.
When I went back to school following the accident, the hard part wasn’t the academics side of it (although the note-taking and the typing of papers was very difficult and a slow process), but the social aspect was the toughest.
Just the fact that I had to interact with everyone, while in a wheelchair and with a speech impediment was the hardest thing that I ever had to. But I overcame my fears and pushed on each day. Going back to school was the best thing that I could have done at that point in my life.
I’ve did freelance journalism work for local newspapers since 2000 and then I learned to drive a handicap equipped van in 2004.
Although I wanted to find love and have my own home for 20 years after my accident, it never happened.
Then one day, when I was least expecting it, I met my future wife.
Amy and I have now been married for four and a half years. We live in our own home in Woodruff with our German Shepherd, Katie.
• I hope you enjoy reading how Kevin Krause used education to give his life meaning. I would like to hear from you. Send comments, ideas, or purchase my book me at: [email protected].