At 17, Kiesha Mastrodimos experienced a sudden and drastic shift in her life. 

While driving home late at night, Mastrodimos and her friend got in a car crash when a moose landed on her car, leaving her paralyzed in an instant and making her a quadriplegic.

"I decided I wouldn't let it bring me down. So, I started focusing on all the positives, immersing myself in all the opportunities that came my way. It didn't happen instantly, however," said Mastrodimos. 

Mastrodimos expressed that she needed to delve into what she loved before the accident and see if she could still do them, which for her was drawing.

"When I first started, it was not very great, but as I kept going over the years, it just got better and better." 

Mastrodimos was then approached by her physio gym in Calgary to draw up some bookmarks.

"Once I did the bookmarks, I had people come up to me and say, hey, this would look great as coloring pages, and that kind of sparked the idea."

The illustrator, now 27-years-old, participated in the Local Author Showcase at the Strathmore Municipal Library on May 4, presenting a coloring book titled 'Fall Down Seven Times, Stand Up Eight'.

That story came two weeks before the accident, "I got a tattoo that says that on my body, and then I got in the car accident. So, it was just my little confirmation that everything would be okay. I would get up once more every time I got knocked down."

Mastrodimos said it became her motto and figured it would be a perfect name for her colouring book. 

Having a solid and robust support system is something that Mastrodimos said was crucial for her healing journey. 

"So at the very beginning, when I got in the car accident, I was brought to Edmonton, and I had lived in Grande Prairie my whole life. So, being in Edmonton, I was away from everything, but my grandma told me to start a Facebook page, and that's kind of what started everything."

Mastrodimos expressed that everyone ended up texting her all the time, wondering how she was doing, and as she couldn't respond all the time, she decided to post on the page.

"Then I took that and, throughout the years, just kept posting and posting as I went places, did speaking events, and slowly started to grow a following."

Kiesha Mastrodimos's Facebook page now has around 4000 followers. 

"They are mainly from Grand Prairie because that's where I lived my whole life, but just reading the comments from that, having these people support me from day one is my motivation."

Mastrodimos ends with a message to keep fighting despite the trials and tribulations of life.

"You can still have a beautiful, meaningful, and important life after a tragedy. It just starts with you, and I mean it ends with you, too. Your life is exactly what you put into it and how you look at things. My life is not rainbows and butterflies every single day. I have to look at the tiny butterflies and rainbows on those bad days and focus on that."

Her colouring book, "Fall Down Seven Times, Stand Up Eight," can be found in her Esty shop.

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