A Chicago teenager left paralyzed from the waist down in a shooting just before he was set to graduate high school has embraced his first year of college at DePaul University with enthusiasm.
"It’s been really fun for the first week and I don’t see any reason for me not to like college so far," Jonathan Annicks said.
Annicks simply walked out of his Little Village home on April 10 to get his cell phone charger out of his brother’s car when someone walked up and fired eight shots at the Walter Payton College Prep student and hockey player.
One of the bullets severed his spine.
After several weeks of rehabilitation, Jonathan has adapted to life in a wheelchair, graduated high school, and is now a freshman. Getting around is a challenge, he says, but he doesn't let that get in his way.
“The faculty, the staff, the students are all very helpful," he said. "If they see that I am rolling up to a door they’ll be like, 'Here let me get that for you.'"
He feels independent getting around DePaul's campus, but home is a different story.
Someone has to help him go up and down the front steps, and his family cannot afford to put in a lift for him.
"How is he going to get himself out of the house in case of an emergency?" his mom Linda asked. "He can’t."
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After the shooting, a friend of Jonathan's set up a Plumfund account to raise money for his care, and now, the accessibility improvements to his family's home.
"This is just the next step to gaining my complete independence," Jonathan said.
