AngeL11:11A

About me:

Born in Clovis, New Mexico but raised overseas in the Philippines, Spain, and Guam. Angela Rockwood of Thai-German descent is the oldest of four children, returned to the U.S. at 15 and attended three different high schools. Graduating in Tampa, Fl. with two art scholarships under her belt, she soon began a modeling career in HI. and New York, but as she came of age, Angela decided to leave the fashion world behind for a healthier lifestyle as a fitness instructor, and entered the world of martial arts.

Angela later moved to San Francisco and managed a supper club called Essex. At 22, she made the decision to move to L.A. to finish art school, and worked with two well-known designers, Michelle Bohbot and Bijan. Turning down a job as a composite sketch artist for the LAPD, she accepted a modeling job for designer Michelle of Bisou Bisou, and was back in the entertainment world. At 25, she dipped her toes into acting, filming the Fast and the Furious, and later V.I.P. in which she played the movie star Lexi Erickson. By this time, Angela's life was practically perfect: she was engaged to her soul mate and best friend, they were buying a new house, and she was embarking on an acting career.

Turmoil struck on September 4, 2001. Angela was en route from San Francisco to L.A. with two of her close girlfriends, her 5'9 frame wedged in the back seat of a two-door coupe. When the accident happened, she remembered the car fishtailing violently, before it swung around by the force of the impact, and hit the side of the mountain. She was thrown in the back of the drivers seat, and her neck snapped instantly. The car flipped five times and Angela was thrown out of the window landing 20 feet away. Of the two friends who were with her, one did not survive.

The moment I opened my eyes in the hospital after my surgery. I felt I was living in a surreal, parallel reality. I had now been transported into the realm of the paralyzed: a C4-5 quadriplegic. The doctors told me I had 3% chance of moving or feeling anything from the neck down. Which I NEVER believed, and never once did I feel I was cursed, or at the receiving end of bad karma. I even had a premonition at 17 that I'd be in a horrible car accident. I'd forgotten about this, and was reminded of it 18 months or so later after the accident, by a friend I had told in the past. The vision was clear, I immediately sensed that I had a mission to fulfill, and that the hope and willpower I felt would guide me to become an advocate for individuals.

Today my road to recovery is taking me in different directions. Coming from a martial arts background and with training as a fitness instructor, Im a firm believer in alternative methods of healing and recovery. I have picked up my career: Became an ambassador for the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation assisting and helping in the Minority Outreach Campaign, while working as a life coach for Operation Confidence, Quickie and Fight2Walk. In the meanwhile I have started my own foundation called Walk-On, producing a video for woman in wheelchairs, taking acting classes, and continue my fulltime career of recovery with my trainers, acupuncturist, and chi-healers. You can definitely say this DIVALISCIOUS ''LIVE WIRE is pretty much the same SPIRITIED, POSITIVE, ADRENALINE-JUNKIE, HYPER-SPAZZ, and if anything STRONGER human being.

~The body is a vessel for the soul, and YES, I KNOW I WILL WALK AGAIN.~

''Your journey has molded you for your greater good, and it was exactly what it needed to be. Don't think that you've lost time. There is no short-cutting to life. It took each and ever situation you have encountered to bring you to now. And now is right on time.''