CINCINNATI — When Keziah Lewis walks across the stage at the University of Cincinnati's spring commencement, she'll prove many people wrong.
"I'm going to feel like I'm completing a part of my life that I thought was over," she said.
"I heard 'you're not going to walk again,' I heard 'it's going to be a lot of touch and go,' I heard a lot of 'you can't do this, it's going to be hard,' but I'm stubborn."
Lewis graduates Saturday morning with a degree in English - Creative Writing.
She was four days from returning to the uptown campus in July 2017, enjoying the opening night of the Ohio State Fair in Columbus when tragedy struck.
She can't remember much of what happened after she boarded the Fireball ride on the midway. But, through cellphone video, the nation witnessed the horror she experienced first hand.
One arm of the spinning, swinging Fireball broke off, sending a carriage of riders onto the midway, killing Her boyfriend Tyler Jarrell and injuring Lewis and six others.
A ride malfunctioned at the Ohio State Fair on Wednesday, July 26, 2017, Columbus Fire Battalion Chief Steve Martin said, according to the Columbus Dispatch and CNN affiliate WCMH.
"I feel like the survivors guilt won't ever go away especially because we were both so young and we were really close to one another," Lewis said. "We'd just got back from Niagara Falls."
Lewis spent time in a wheelchair, underwent excruciating physical therapy, and wasn't sure she would return to Cincinnati or campus. She'd been involved in a number of activities before the crash - including a touring singing group - but discovered she had social anxiety about going back.
"I felt like everyone was staring at me," she said. "No one really sees like 20-year-olds with a cane anymore and it always brings questions."
She missed her creative outlets, though. Lewis has been writing since she was a child. She started feeling more confident about her physical improvements and the campus topography. Then a global pandemic changed everything.
"I actually didn't think I was ever gonna finish getting my last few credits. But honestly COVID kinda helped that, ease that along," she said. "Everything went online and I was like 'Yeah, I can do this.'"
You won't find a bigger cheerleader than her mom, who said she knew Lewis could bounce back and prayed on it.
"I am overjoyed," said Clarissa Williams. "There are not even enough words to describe how proud and excited that I am for her. I call her my Heaven on Earth."
Williams and Jarrell's mom, Amber Duffield, threw Lewis a surprise graduation party this week. The families remain close, now nearly six years after tragedy struck. Jarrell was near high school graduation and would have started boot camp the following summer.
In the years since the crash, Jarrell's mom led the fight to pass and implement Tyler's Law, which required changes to ride inspections in Ohio. The Fireball arm had been internally corroded, missed by inspectors.
Saturday's graduation will be bittersweet without him, Lewis said.
"I wish I would have seen his graduation from high school and all the milestones he has missed," she said. "A little bit of everything I do is for Tyler, especially all the big things that are fun. Like, I'm going on my first cruise and it's my first time out of the country and so I plan on going to see him at his grave beforehand and after to tell him everything about it."
Lewis said she is looking into getting a Masters degree and ultimately wants to write a book.
