Move Me
At 27, Kelsey dove into Lake Superior as a dancer and emerged paralyzed. Now she is on a quest to redefine who she is after her life-altering injury.
Beneath the waters of Lake Superior off the shore of Wisconsin, Kelsey Peterson underwent a transformation. On the eve of Independence Day 2012, she dove in and smacked the lake bottom head first, suffering a life-altering spinal cord injury that would take away both function and sensation from the chest down, essentially robbing her of her self-identities as an athlete and dancer. Within the spinal cord injury (SCI) community, she found peers and allies in her quest to answer the question: Who am I now? As she grapples with the ebb and flow of hope and acceptance, Kelsey travels across the United States. Along the way, she talks to researchers and meets with people who belong to the SCI community, and who help give her strength and the will to return to dance. When a cutting-edge clinical trial surfaces, it tests her expectations and her faith in the possibility of a cure, forcing her to evaluate the limits of her recovery—body and spirit.