Online Portfolio - Katelyn Ludwig, Boston, MA

Writing Samples

Thank you letter for The Phoenix Society:

My experience at World Burn 2010 started long before I got to Galveston, TX – it started in the airport in Boston, when I was waiting to meet my traveling partners.  I had only met one survivor, and was scanning the crowd, suddenly realizing that I would have no idea who the other travelers would be.  I saw a girl – clearly visibly burned – being fed by her father.  My mind started to race, and I found my eyes continually returning to that girl and her father.  I had never seen anything like that before in my life; was I really ready for what I was about to experience?

My burn was on Halloween 2009 – a scald burn, a “hidden” burn – that required skin grafts and lots of rehab at my parents’ house.  I thought I was the most unfortunate person ever.  Who would ever love me with these scars?  Over the year following my injury, I struggled a lot with self-esteem, anger, and pain.  I was the worst burn anyone I knew had ever seen.

Now, I’m in the airport, looking tragedy in the face.  What right do I have attending a support group?  I remember crying on the way into the terminal.  I felt so lost and alone – I was burned, but not burned badly enough, now that I had seen a “real” burn.

The next few hours were a blur.  I met my roommate who had a trach tube; I saw people everywhere, all over the hotel, with visible burns; I just didn’t know what to do with myself.  I did the best I could to stay calm and focused.  I tried to be unaffected by the visible scarring and amputations all around me.  I tried to be kind and compassionate – I tried not to get mad or feel stupid when people assumed I was not a burn survivor, because they could not see my scars. 

Over the next few days at World Burn, my entire outlook changed.  I shared my story in a room full of people, and I cried into a microphone.  I listened to tragic stories, inspiring stories, and everything in between.  When I first saw burn survivors, I stared; by the end, I couldn’t even see the scars.  I tried hard to refocus my energy and think positively.  The perspective I gained was amazing.  I thought my life was over when I was burned.  I felt pretty blessed when I met people who fought death.  They decided to live and thrive – why couldn’t I do the same?

By the end of World Burn, I felt incredibly fortunate, and determined to make significant changes in my life – if I wanted to be happy, I could be happy.  The proof was right in front of me in Galveston.  Next year, when I go to World Burn, I want to be one of the people that I looked to in awe; I want to give back to others the way that the Phoenix Society has given to me.

I will never forget my experience at World Burn; I will be forever grateful to those who enabled me to attend at such an early phase in my recovery.  I don’t know where I would be without the Phoenix Society – I have a long way to go, but I know I am heading in the right direction now, and that I am not alone.