Former Gators distance runner Lauren Brasure reaches the finish line for her UF degree on Saturday. (File photo/UAA Communications)
Lauren Brasure Overcomes Life-Changing Accident to Graduate, Discover Her Passion
Friday, August 9, 2019 | Track and Field, Cross Country
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“I found my passion in what was the most difficult time of my life. I have a lot of admiration for those people that helped me along the way.” --Lauren Brasure
By: Zach Dirlam
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Lauren Brasure doesn't remember much about the night it happened. She doesn't remember much about the weeks thereafter either.
She's been told she walked home in early December, needing to study for an upcoming final exam in a statistics class. She had a C at the time but the fall semester of 2015, her sophomore year, she pushed herself to establish more of a balance with her academics and training for Florida's cross country and track program. A competitor and a perfectionist, Brasure wanted to crush the final and increase her commitment to schoolwork the following semester. She will be the first to admit she struggled academically, mostly by choice. That didn't make her much different from the abundance of 19-year-old college students just trying to find their way at a time when, for the most part, they are making their own decisions for the first time in their lives.
Then, on Dec. 9, it happened.
A story citing the Gainesville Police Department's accident report explains Brasure and a group of friends went to cross the road near the 2400 block of West University Avenue, around 10 p.m. Brasure, ending a phone call, stepped off the sidewalk and into the street as a car traveling 35 miles per hour swerved to avoid her friends. It struck Brasure, throwing her onto the hood and then back onto the pavement.
Both her clavicles were broken. A blood clot in her brain required emergency surgery at UF Health Shands Hospital.
Another story noted Brasure spent the next two weeks in intensive care at UF Health Shands, after which she was transported to Shepherd Center in Atlanta, which specializes in brain and spinal cord injuries and is among the top 10 rehabilitation hospitals in the nation. She went home to West Michigan on New Year's Eve, continuing her recovery at Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital in Grand Rapids, Mich., eight days later.
Members of the Gators Volleyball team marked their shoes to support Lauren as they played in the 2015 NCAA Tournament.
Throughout the rehab process, Brasure had to relearn everything from getting out of bed, to brushing her teeth and folding laundry. Her brain needed to teach itself these things all over again. What the accident didn't impact was her competitive spirit, allowing her to speed through the basics. Much of her three-month outpatient therapy program with Mary Free Bed was about the redevelopment of skills she would need to regain her independence and continue toward a college degree.
"More of my therapy focused on getting back into a college education," Brasure said via a phone interview earlier this week. "Living independently, making my own meals, folding laundry, just those basic things. Those were my last steps before I graduated therapy."
Brasure graduated from therapy in March 2016. Saturday, she graduates from the University of Florida with a bachelor's degree in sociology. And there was no way she would miss the opportunity to receive it in person.
"Being back in Gainesville always makes me very anxious and nervous," Brasure said. "But walking across the stage, seeing those people that have helped me get to this point will be so rewarding."
Everything moved slower than Brasure wanted in the months following the accident. She just wanted to get back to her normal life. She wanted to be back at Florida, taking classes again. She even hoped to run for the Gators again. None of those things were possible. Not right away.
"I didn't understand what happened," Brasure told her local news station shortly before graduating from Mary Free Bed. "I didn't understand that it's a process."
The toughest thing of all for Brasure was the fact she processed information at a slower rate. Multi-tasking was tiring. Even being around groups of people for extended periods of time wore her out. It was too much stimulation for her still-recovering brain.
In her final weeks at Mary Free Bed, though, doctors gave Brasure a major part of her life back: running.
"It is such an outlet for me," Brasure said. "It was so freeing I was given that ability again. I didn't remember a whole lot from being in my accident, as far as being at the rehabilitation center (in Atlanta). What few memories I have, I remember people who were immobile. They were never going to have that ability to walk, use their arms. To me, being able to do that was a feeling I will never take for granted."
Brasure returned to Gainesville in April 2016 to reunite with her teammates and watch the Pepsi Florida Relays. But it was not the right place for her to continue her education. She determined online classes at home, with her family and support system there to help her along the way, was the best environment for her studies.
By August and the start of the fall semester, she could handle one class. Brasure already knew exactly which one it would be. Statistics.
As she moved closer to the normal life she had before the accident, Brasure felt a sense of pressure. At times, she was terrified.
"I was afraid of failing academically," Brasure said. "I was surrounded, especially at UF and moving back home, by such loving support that really pushed me to pursue the best future I could possibly want. That support made me feel like I could do anything. It was scary to me to think, what if I let everyone else down? What if I let myself down?"
Brasure crushed the final exam she never got to take the year before. Her course grade? A-minus. It was one of the most rewarding moments of her recovery.
Each semester, she increased her course load. This past spring, she took five classes. Fifteen credits. She earned an A in all of them. Brasure finished with a B in both anatomy and physiology this summer. Still a perfectionist, she could not help but be slightly frustrated with herself.
Eyeing graduate school, Brasure hopes to become an occupational therapist. Her devotion to helping others, putting herself in the same position as the numerous people who cared for her is Brasure's primary focus on now.
Back in Grand Rapids, she makes time to work with Hope Network, a non-profit dedicated to helping individuals with disabilities live independently. Brasure assists patients who are recovering from a traumatic brain injury.
"I found my passion in what was the most difficult time of my life," Brasure said. "I have a lot of admiration for those people that helped me along the way."
The life-altering accident taught Brasure plenty of lessons. Proper balance in life sits atop the list. She looked back at her first year and a half at Florida and realized athletics were all that mattered to her. "I don't think I gave enough love to other areas of my life," she said. While her last three-plus years were dedicated solely to academics and non-profit work, Brasure no longer feels off balance. She believes everything is as it should be for her, and that an impactful future lay ahead.
Saturday inside Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center, Brasure will walk across the stage and into that future, knowing she's discovered both herself and her purpose. Not many 23-year-old graduates get to say that.
"I'm seeing this as just a closing chapter to what has seemed like forever to me. It's rewarding in itself. To close that chapter means so much to me."
