[PHOTOSTORY 5: STRUGGLE] The Road to Recovery for Lily Grace

 By: Meredith Staley

Lily Grace Freeman is a 16-year-old high school student, cheerleader, dancer, and Statesboro local. After a major hip surgery in March, she attends physical therapy each week to support her recovery efforts. 

Warming up week is one of the most crucial parts of her PT routine. Exercising on the bike allows Lily Grace's tight left side to move, pushing her leg and hip abilities. 

Lily Grace next transitions to the leg press. This exercise is especially hard for Lily Grace because it causes her left leg to pop out with each movement. 

A small scar remains on Lily Grace's left leg. The road to recovery is difficult, and this scar is a visible reminder of the struggles she has gone through with her hips. 

Lily Grace chats with her physical therapist. This exercise requires a lot of strength, so LG talks through how to correctly do the movements since her hip often pops out. 

Lily Grace struggles to maintain her balance on the balance board. With a weaker hip on her left side, this exercise requires a lot of mental and physical strength. 

Lily Grace concentrates on keeping her body balanced through her PT exercise. As a competitive dancer at a local studio, these PT exercises are much different than her typical dance warmups. 

Lily Grace prepares for exercises on the bar. As a ballet dancer, she is very familiar with dance-like stretches such as these. 

Lily Grace focuses on gaining strength in her legs and hips. Coming once a week after high school, PT has become a part of her every-week routine as she recovers. 

Lily Grace utilizes a blue band to work out her hip and leg muscles. Lily Grace loves pink and athleisure, as told by her outfit and Hoka running shoes. 

Lily Grace stands on her tiptoes as she completes her exercise. After not being able to dance for so long because of her surgery, doing exercises like these often brings on nostalgic emotions for LG. 

Lily Grace pushes to finish her tiptoe exercise. Having to recover has caused her to put her busy, athletic-driven lifestyle on hold, especially over the past couple of months. 

Lily Grace next sidesteps with the same blue band. This exercise given by her physical therapist, works to build up muscle in her weak upper leg areas. 

Lily Grace faces away as she does step ups onto a wooden block. She spends around 45 minutes each week doing these exercises, with this week focusing extra on strengthening her weak hip. 

Mind over matter is something Lily Grace deals with as she exercises. Because moving her hip is a struggle, LG has to remain focused while she exercises. 

Stretching out on the ball is the final part of Lily Grace's exercises. Her PT assistant walks her through the weird movements with the ball. 

Lily Grace points her leg as she completes her final exercises with the ball. This exercise both looks and feels a little funny, but Lily Grace noted it would make for a great photo op. 

Lily Grace has a serious conversation with her PT assistant about future PT/surgery plans. Her road to recovery is still long, and by June, she may have to have another surgery. 

Lily Grace walks out of Optim Orthopedics after another PT appointment. She'll come back next week for another round of exercises.

Lily Grace gets into her car to head home to homework and other activities. Adjusting to a slower lifestyle has been a struggle, but LG is hopeful for her recovery ahead. 

[PHOTOSTORY 5: STRUGGLE] Car Troubles

 By: Kyra Dorsey 

A rusted front grille sits outside of a car shop. The shop was where senior mechanical engineering major Eli Gerrells had his car repaired after it unexpectedly broke down.

Gerrells looks down at his dashboard after his car sputters. No lights or signals came on and his car sputtered quite often, so he didn’t think anything of it. 

Hannah Adams, Gerrells’ girlfriend, glances over at the dash after the car sputters again. The car then proceeded to drive perfectly normal for another 5 miles. 

Gerrells puts his hand on his head in worry after his car would no longer accelerates. He was able to briefly put the car in neutral and turned the car onto a nearby road.

Adams gets out of the car while Gerrells tries to figure out what is wrong. He suspected that it was something with his battery terminals because they were rusted and had caused problems in the past.

Gerrells gets out of the car and tries to push the car farther out of traffic. They ended up stopping in what they thought was an alley, but it turned out to be a road that led to an apartment complex. 

Gerrells attempts to push and steer the car on his own. He quickly realized that was not the best idea.

Gerrells tells Adams where to steer the car. After she saw how much he was struggling, she decided to steer while he pushed.

Adams looks back and waits for Gerrells to start pushing the car. They had to keep pausing because of the traffic. 

Gerrells stands near the car after pushing it to a safer spot. It went completely dead shortly after and would not change gears at first. 

Gerrells walks to the gas station. He suspected that maybe he just ran out of gas and that's why the car went completely dead. 

Gerrells uses a jerrycan to pour into his tank. It turned out that the car in fact did not need gas and Gerrells ended up having it towed. 

Gerrells looks anxiously at his computer screen after receiving the estimate from the shop. The car broke down on Friday, so he had to wait until Monday to speak to the mechanic. 

Gerrells sits and waits for his car at the shop. The car ended up needing a new fuel pump. 

An old car sits in the car shop after getting new tires. The shops specialized in older cars, but Gerrells' 2009 model still required a new part that cost extra. 

Gerrells pulls out his debit card to pay. The grand total ended up being $1,213 for the part and repairs.

A road leads to the other cars, including Gerrells, that the shop was working on. A mechanic pulled his car around about 20 minutes after he paid, which made Gerrells late to his class.

Gerrell's car sits at the front of the shop. He was happy to have it back. 

Gerrells walks around his car, inspecting it a little before leaving the shop. “This is the best my car has driven since I first got it,” Gerrells said. 

The invoice and receipt sit on his table in his apartment. “I’m going to be eating ramen noodles for the rest of the semester,” Gerrells said. 

[PHOTOSTORY 5: STRUGGLE] Habitat for Humanity

 By: Vanessa Alcala

The Habitat for Humanity of Bulloch County organization is open to volunteers helping to build homes for those in need throughout the community. Off Henry Road, three houses are under construction for residents.

Aaron Marcinkevich is the construction manager for Habitat for Humanity. He leads a group of volunteers to work on the houses. 

The interior of the houses are packed with construction tools, floor coverings and paint ready for the team to use. The items are supplied through donations and a yearly budget.

Marcinkevich looks through his tool chest, trying to find something to assist one of his volunteers. They are preparing to hang a light fixture in the bathroom.

A volunteer, Cole Langford, begins to configure the wires to hang the lights. These lights are going to hang above the mirror in the bathroom.

On the kitchen countertop, two paint buckets sit with paintbrushes in them. The paint job on the interior of the homes was complete.

Inside the third home, one of the bedrooms is filled with boxes of appliances, waiting to be installed. This is one of the last steps of the process.

Marcinkevich uses a tape measure to mark the spots for the doorknobs on the closet. While he does this, he talks to the volunteers, making sure they understand the calculations he used to find the best spots. 

Brady Ninowski looks through the drill kit, trying to find the right one for the job. He was the one in charge of drilling the holes in the doors. 

Maintaining his focus, Ninowski begins to drill into the closet. There will be a round doorknob on each of the panels.

The light helps Ninowski guide the drill into the panel. To make sure the doorknob is secure, it has to be a very precise movement.

Moving to another panel, Ninowski repeats the drilling motion. While he does this, the other volunteers look for other things that could be worked on.

After Ninowski finishes drilling the holes, Jamin Minyon, another volunteer, begins to screw the first doorknob into place. 

In the backyard of the third house, there is a Habitat for Humanity trailer parked in the grass. This trailer is used for storage.

Ninowski sits in the closet area, watching as Marcinkevich helps put something in place with one of the closet door panels.

After taking a look at the door, Marcinkevich looks for a screw to help with the task. While the volunteers worked, Marcinkevich spoke with them about their lives and helped educate them about the projects.

Ninowski places the electric drills on the ground before moving on to help Minyon screw in the rest of the doorknobs.

Marcinkevich leans in to check the doorknobs after the volunteers placed them. He goes in behind their work to make sure they did the job well.

In between the two houses under construction, there is a completed home with residents who recently moved in. One of the residents uses a wheelchair, so there is a construction crew coming in the coming days to install a ramp for easier access to the driveway.