Page 93 - SpringBoard_ELA_Grade8_Flipbook

aCTIvITy 1.12
continued
physical and emotional Challenges
grueling: physically demanding elite: made of the best and most able
rigorous: full of difficulty
Word CoNNeCTIoNS
Etymology
The English word culinary appeared in the 1630s having derived from the Latin word culinarius which means “of the kitchen.” About 20 years later it took on the meaning “of cooking.” The English word kiln, which is an oven, also comes from the same Latin root.
6 Segers is married now to his high school girlfriend, Lindsay Blanchard. They are expecting a baby boy in October. He plans to return to culinary arts school this fall and they are about to move into an apartment in the Bothell area.
7 Until his official Army retirement date on Aug. 21, he is Cpl. Segers, the owner of a Purple Heart.1
8 Segers wears shorts in the warm summer weather, not even pretending to hide his prosthetic leg. He has run a marathon. A specially designed gas pedal is on the left side of his slate-gray Toyota Tacoma truck.
9 Nothing is stopping him.
10 “Everybody’s injury is different and everybody handles it in their own way. There is
no way to measure it, whether it’s physical or mental,” Segers said. “I just kept telling the doctors that I didn’t want my life to be different than it was before. Of course, the loss of a leg changed me. But it doesn’t define me or the rest of my life.”
11 Segers was enjoying a promising start to a career as a chef when the economic recession forced him to consider joining the Army. He figured he would serve in the family tradition set by his father and grandfather.
12 After grueling training in the hot Georgia sun, he landed a spot in the Army’s 101st Airborne Pathfinder Division, an elite infantry unit, and was sent to Afghanistan in February 2010 to work on personnel recovery missions.
13 After the explosion, Segers was stabilized and flown to the Army hospital in Landstuhl, Germany.
14 “My eyes were completely bandaged and I was in a lot of pain. The stretchers were on bunks in the airplane, so when I woke up it felt like I was in a coffin,” Segers said. “I was so glad to hear the voice of my buddy, Andrew Leonard, a guy from Boston who had been injured earlier.”
15 Tristan Segers can’t say enough good things about the surgeons, psychiatrists, physical therapists and other staff at the Army hospital, as well as the numerous charitable organizations such as the Fisher House Foundation that help wounded veterans
16 “I was truly cared for,” he said. “The rehabilitation was rigorous and I pushed it, building back my muscles and learning to use the prosthetic leg.
17 “But they never told me I was doing a good job for fear that I might get complacent. There were many guys there who had given up on life.”
18 “Most of the time when people see my leg, they think I’ve been in a car accident or something. But sometimes an old veteran will stop me and thank me for my service,” Segers said. “I didn’t do anything special, but if the progress I have made motivates another wounded veteran to keep going, then that’s great.”
Second Read
• Reread the article to answer these text-dependent questions.
• Write any additional questions you have about the text in your Reader/Writer Notebook.
my Notes
1 Purple Heart: a medal given to U.S. Army personnel who are injured in the line of duty 66 SpringBoard® English Language Arts Grade 8
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