DUBLIN, Ga. — At first glance, Seth Nicholson looks like a typical nurse, standing around chatting with his coworkers in the hallway in between rounds.
However, it was a long journey to get Nicholson to this point. "I mean, I wasn't happy with the situation, but I was there, so I made the best of it."
In 2014, Nicholson got into a horrible car accident. It led to a spinal cord injury. The doctors told him he would never walk again, but Nicholson likes a challenge. "Just the will to do it, and proving people wrong as well."
If you see Nicholson now, it's clear he is not in a wheelchair. He proved them wrong. Technically, he still considered a paraplegic because of the different daily challenges he faces.
In his many months recovering and working to heal and gain his strength back, he finished nursing school. Nicholson's injuries didn't stop his dreams.
"The progression of patients, seeing patients go from deathly ill to being able to get up and get around, I've got the feeling of what they're going through, so I try to make their time here as good as I possibly can."
In fact, it pushed him to excel in his job at Fairview Park Hospital in Dublin -- a fighter, and now a "Nurse Excellence" recipient.
Of course, his mom, Tonya Nicholson, wasn't shocked at all. "Very often, he is the first one in and last one out, and nobody goes down without him helping them."
The challenge to prove people wrong motivated Nicholson to walk again, and work hard in his career.
There's one thing that he wasn't going to miss out on. "That's one of the biggest times of your life, and I didn't want it to be defined by me sitting down during it."
It's his wedding day this June. Nicholson is getting married to his high school sweetheart. That, he says, he has to stand for. "We both take care of each other."
Nicholson says he may be walking now, but he could end up back in a wheelchair. Either way, he's not giving up.