{"id":7030,"date":"2022-06-17T10:06:52","date_gmt":"2022-06-17T14:06:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?p=7030"},"modified":"2022-06-17T10:11:43","modified_gmt":"2022-06-17T14:11:43","slug":"watch-paralyzed-teen-walk-graduation-stage-9-months-after-hockey-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2022\/06\/watch-paralyzed-teen-walk-graduation-stage-9-months-after-hockey-injury.html","title":{"rendered":"Watch as Paralyzed Teen Walks Graduation Stage 9 Months After Hockey Injury"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A determined Massachusetts teen walked his high school graduation stage recently after sustaining a hockey injury that left him paralyzed from the waist down.<\/p>\n<p>Determined to walk again, he was able to receive his diploma standing on his own two feet. As Jake Thibeault rolled his wheelchair across the lawn as part of the graduating class at Milton Academy, nobody was quite sure if Jake would be able to keep a promise he&#8217;d made to himself nine months ago.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Mass. teen paralyzed by hockey injury walks across graduation stage\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QIYwJ83QEWo\" width=\"686\" height=\"386\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Jake Thibeault made headlines months ago when an injury during a hockey game left him with two broken vertebrae, partial paralysis, and a harrowing journey to try and heal. After his injury, the teen set a personal goal of walking his graduation stage to receive his diploma. Jake said he was informed that his chances of walking again were \u201clow,\u201d but he was determined to try. \u201cI\u2019ve been kind of an underdog in hockey and in multiple things where I\u2019ve had to go that extra mile,\u201d he told the Patriot Ledger. \u201cI\u2019ve had to work a little extra harder. Those years of having to fight hard for what I want has helped me to now face the biggest challenge yet and, hopefully, I have to ever face.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to Jake&#8217;s Father, Mike Thibeault, &#8220;We kind of realized that he wouldn&#8217;t necessarily be able to walk under his own power, but he was still determined, in his words, to be vertical.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>When his name was called, Jake started rolling his wheelchair across the stage. Then stopped and stood up. With leg braces and a walker, but completely on his own, Jake Thibeault took 30 steps and crossed his finish line.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust an overwhelming feeling of being proud for Jake, never more honored to be his father.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Jake is headed to Babson College to study in the fall. His father says he is as determined as ever to walk even better and go even further.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A determined Massachusetts teen walked his high school graduation stage recently after sustaining a hockey injury that left him paralyzed from the waist down. Determined to walk again, he was able to receive his diploma standing on his own two feet. As Jake Thibeault rolled his wheelchair across the lawn as part of the graduating&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":462,"featured_media":7045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiring-messages"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Watch as Paralyzed Teen Walks Graduation Stage 9 Months After Hockey Injury<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Watch as Paralyzed Teen Walks Graduation Stage 9 Months After Hockey Injury\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A determined Massachusetts teen walked his high school graduation stage recently after sustaining a hockey injury that left him paralyzed from the waist down. Determined to walk again, he was able to receive his diploma standing on his own two feet. As Jake Thibeault rolled his wheelchair across the lawn as part of the graduating&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2022\/06\/watch-paralyzed-teen-walk-graduation-stage-9-months-after-hockey-injury.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Inspiration Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-06-17T14:06:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-06-17T14:11:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2022\/06\/Hockey-Player-Graduates-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"434\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Beliefnet Staff\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Watch as Paralyzed Teen Walks Graduation Stage 9 Months After Hockey Injury","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Watch as Paralyzed Teen Walks Graduation Stage 9 Months After Hockey Injury","og_description":"A determined Massachusetts teen walked his high school graduation stage recently after sustaining a hockey injury that left him paralyzed from the waist down. 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