In this emotionally inspiring interview with Yagazie Emezi,
Sosoliso plane crash survivor, Kechi Okwuchi talks about the crash and her
future. Okwuchi, despite is a confident in herself a very strong willed and determined young lady…
with all that has happened to her, the 25-year-old is still strong and hopeful
about life. This is a must read interview, you will find it very uplifting.
Y: Tell me about the actual crash, if you may.
Kechi: The pilot announced that we were going to land in the
airport in about 20 minutes and the plane started descending. I was in an aisle
seat which is really unusual for me because I like the window so I couldn’t
really see what was going on outside. Suddenly everything seemed different. We
were going down way too fast. Someone in the back was shouting. It was a
woman’s voice, “Is this plane trying to land?” When she said that, everyone
started panicking. I looked to the side to my friend and she was looking really
scared and I was probably looking just as scared. So we held hands and tried to pray, but
before we could even start to say, “In Jesus’ name”, there was this really
loud, searing sound right in my ear and the next thing I knew, I woke up in the
hospital.
Y: Understand that you don’t have to answer any of my
questions, but how did you deal with the loss of your friends and the other
people you knew on the plane?
Kechi: Well at that point when I woke up in the hospital, I
automatically assumed that since I was alive, everyone else was alive too. I
was told by the psychiatrist in the hospital 4 months later that I was the only
survivor of all the students and only one of two survivors of the entire
flight. I cried a whole lot. I was devastated. The first person I could think
of was my friend Toke Bagru, the girl that was sitting beside me because she
was my closest friend. She was the first person I thought of because she had
been the last face I had seen before the crash. My mother was there with me the
whole time, she’s my rock. She let me cry everything out. I still cry, but I
don’t like the idea of being constantly sad about it. If I stay sad and
constantly depressed, it’s an insult to their memory. I want to live my life to
the fullest, not just for myself, but for them too.
Kechi with her mother and sister
Y: How do you handle your scars? Mainly, how do you handle
the way strangers look at you?
Kechi: It’s a bit uncomfortable, I won’t deny that. I try to
make it not define me. Maybe it is America because people here are a little bit
more reserved than in Nigeria where you know, strangers will walk up to you and
go, “Ehh yaa, chai, what happened?” And in a way, that is actually a better
reaction than the strangers here who stare in a really conscious way. I really
don’t have a problem with them looking because if it were me, I’d stare too. I
try to put myself in their shoes and I don’t really get annoyed as the world
would think I would. It is a really gradual process.
Y: Well, let’s move to a different aspect. Tell us more
about you, what you do for fun, your friends, let’s get to know you.
Kechi: Well, pre and post the accident, I’ve always had this
sense of confidence which I won’t deny has helped me now. My friends describe
me as a really cheerful and optimistic person and I see that. I like to smile
and laugh a lot, I love joking around. I love video games and board games and I
love spending time with my family. I love going to amusement parks, I love the
fast rides. Fashion….well I like looking good. I really love looking good. I’m
very fashion conscious, I go for comfort. My normal outfit during the day would
be jeans and a t-shirt. I love different colored hats, I think because I lost
the hair on my head, I just got into this hat crazy where my mother would get
all kinds of hats for me. But recently I’ve been able to start wearing wigs. I
love, love, love singing. It is my second favorite thing to do.
Y: What are your plans and hopes for your future?
Kechi: I want to work in an advertising agency. I’m studying
Marketing and Advertising in college now. I would hope to have a career
involving both. More importantly, I pray that I will be able to become the type
of adult who is able to make a difference. I wouldn’t have been able to make it
this far if it hadn’t been for people who helped me out of the kindness of
their hearts. I want to do things out of the goodness of my heart and not just
for my benefit. Especially for Shriner’s hospital that has treated me. The
things that they have done for me….if I had to pay, I wouldn’t have been able
to do it.
Y: What do you have to tell other out there about being
comfortable in their own skin?
Kechi: No matter who and where you are, you are always going
to encounter obstacles. We never give up. Giving up was the one thing that I
was not allowed to do. If you get to a situation where you feel that you should
just give up and let go, that is the moment that you know that you shouldn’t
give up. You want to be able to know that you tried. If people feel that their
life is worse because of some kind of accident, someone somewhere is going
through the same thing, or worse. It gives me hope because I know that I’m not
alone in dealing with my problems.
Okwuchi survived a terrible plane crash which claimed 109 lives, including 60 students from Loyola Jesuit College, Abuja. She is miracle personified, a wonder to behold…a testimony!!!
Source: www.yagazieemezi.com
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