3 minute read
Griffin Neville
from Graduation 2020
by The Times
ALLIE BLACKBURN, NORTH HALL HIGH SCHOOL
‘I like working, and I don’t like staying at home. ... I like dealing with the chaos of different places. I can see the stress, and it attracts me. I just like being in the rush.’ Allie Blackburn
SCOTT ROGERS | The Times
Learning online, keeping busy amid car crash recovery
BY KELSEY PODO kpodo@gainesvilletimes.com
Only a couple of months into her first semester of senior year, Allie Blackburn of North Hall High School woke up in an ambulance with a metal contraption around her head.
She doesn’t remember the October car accident, just what people have told her.
Blackburn was driving with a friend home from Howard E. Ivester Early College when a vehicle rear-ended them on Interstate 985.
Blackburn’s pelvis and two of her ribs broke, and she had concussion. She was sent home after spending a little more than 24 hours in the hospital.
At first, Blackburn said her doctor didn’t think surgery was necessary. That changed when her damaged pelvis continued to cause excruciating pain.
She went back to the hospital to have screws placed in her hips.
Throughout her senior year, Blackburn said her mother has been her biggest support.
“She sat through everything in the hospital and drove me back and forth to every doctor’s appointment,” she said.
While recovering, Blackburn took her classes online. She said she finished all of her school work the day before public schools officially closed because of the pandemic.
Before the crash, she worked two jobs, one at a Wendy’s in Cleveland and the other at Ingles on Thompson Bridge Road. She also took courses at Early College.
Blackburn said she held two jobs not because she needed the money, but for the stimulation.
When she recovered from her injuries, Blackburn said she tried to jump back into her two jobs. Standing for long periods of time at Wendy’s proved challenging, so she switched to only working at Ingles.
Now done with school, she has a nearly full-time job as an office worker with the grocery store.
In the fall, she plans to study business management at Lanier Technical College. She dreams of becoming a store manager and later starting her own business.
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