She can't see and will likely never get her vision back.
“There’s always going to be something that comes around that -oh I can't do that...” Shaela said.
But two years after the accident that put her here... she has a new outlook on life.
“It's always going to resolve and I can get the best out of it by trying my best and by going to it with a good thought,” Shaela said.
On March 8th it’ll be two years since a
She was 16-years old, a straight A-student at
Now, she's set on becoming a psychologist and helping people get through trauma.
“Just to show them and tell them, they can fight it and come out in the end. They just have to fight it,” Shaela said.
Thursday, 69-year old Douglas Lindsey pled no contest to driving under the influence of prescription drugs in the crash.
Shaela wasn't focused on consequences...
She just wanted him to know...what he did.
“And um...how much it's affected me...and that he understands...that it's really hard,” she said.
Mom and dad are active in the community...raising awareness about blindness and misuse of prescription drugs.
“I mean to make people aware of when they take a prescription drug-that it can affect them and the way they act,” said Mom Lisa Warkentin.
Dad is now the executive director of the Valley's Center for the Blind.
“You just learn to adapt, you can't change it so being upset about it is just going to hold you back,” said Dad Ken Warkentin.
Moving forward as a family…one day at a time, they say.