The Power of Positive Thinking
	Jillian Green has overcome serious injury to return to the track for the Green Wave.
Two years ago, Tulane triple-jumper Jillian Green sprinted down the runway and lifted off into the air, her left foot planted for a split second and she was off again; then a plant of the right foot and another jump before finally splashing down with both feet into the dirt, over 40 feet from her initial take-off point.
Six months later, Green did not know if she would ever walk again.
After a tremendous freshman campaign with the Tulane track and field team, a serious automobile accident in October of 2001 on Interstate 10 in Mississippi left Green searching for feeling in her feet, while her knees were nearly crushed by the vehicle in which she had been riding.
Green, who had finished fourth in the triple jump and fifth in the long jump at the 2001 Conference USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in May, somehow managed to stay positive.
	Two months later, her grandmother whom she had lived with throughout high school passed away. Still she remained positive.
	"The worst part of the whole ordeal was when my grandmother passed away," Green said. "But I remember thinking, 'I am going to do whatever I can to stay as positive as I can for my grandmother.' I did a lot of it for her. I really did."
While she may downplay her achievements, what Green has accomplished in a short time is nothing short of amazing.
	"It has been remarkable; she has persevered through it all," said Dr. Michael Brunet, the Tulane team physician who worked closely with Green. "She never got depressed and just focused on what it took to get better, and that is a tough go sometimes. That's often 50 percent of the battle."
	Now a junior, Green returned to the track in the fall, practicing with the Green Wave once again. She ran in her first official meet on March 15 at the UNO Invitational.
"To the naked eye, it looks like a miraculous comeback," Tulane head track and field coach Heather Van Norman said. "But she was one of the first student-athletes to come to my office when I took this job [in June 2002]. The determination that she showed was unbelievable. She has a light inside her that makes her keep going. She has fire that gives her the willpower to do anything. After seeing that, I am not at all surprised at where she is."
	The road back was by no means easy, but it was paved by an amazing attitude.
	"She always had a very positive attitude," said Tulane head athletic trainer Wendy Svoboda. "She never had any doubt that she would not only walk, but compete again. She had a very good outlook on everything."
"I did not realize the severity of my injuries until the doctor came in and would poke me with a needle and ask me if I could feel it," Green said. "And I could not. He told my mom that they did not know if I would ever walk again."
Green had torn the posterior cruciate ligament in one knee, as well as having other sprains and lesser injuries in her knees. However, the most serious damage was to the nerves in both legs, which caused lack of motor control in her lower legs. She was essentially paralyzed from the mid-calf down.
Green Wave assistant coach Jimmy Patchell, who worked closely with Green throughout her rehabilitation, remembers being there as the doctors told the college sophomore about the extent of her injuries.
"Jill asked the doctor when she would be back jumping," Patchell said. "The doctor told her with this type of nerve damage, she would be lucky to walk again. But she never accepted that possibility."
She jumped into rehab immediately, working with some of the best physical therapists in the field at New Orleans' Charity Hospital. The therapists put her through intense and often frustrating therapy, which she attacked with a strong attitude and willpower, despite also dealing with her grandmother's illness.
"My toe moved for the first time on the day of my grandmother's funeral," Green said. "There is a lot of stuff I think about with my recovery and with my grandmother. The worst pain I went through was when she was dying. I couldn't walk and my feet were killing me. I couldn't walk, but I could feel pain, and it was just terrible, and she was in the hospital at Christmas break. She was dying and I felt like I was dying. But the day she died, my toe moved and then I started walking again and the pain went away and I just thought that was kind of symbolic."
	As the feeling in her feet gradually returned and she began to walk once again, the Houston native still had to deal with her knee injury. She had surgery within six months of the accident and added exercises to rehabilitate her knee to her continuing efforts with her feet.
	While still not at her pre-accident level on the track, Green is now at the level of a top-notch Division I athlete, despite battling daily knee pain.
	"Jill has done amazing things despite her injury, but the amazing thing is that she is a great athlete for us, period," Van Norman said. "Not because she had an injury or an accident, but just because she is a great athlete for our team."
	"I can't even explain the feeling," Green said. "It's been a tough journey, but I just feel like it could be worse. I had a lot of fun during my injury, I know that sounds kind of out there, but I took it as an opportunity for me to be able to get back on track academically, and I did, I made the Dean's List, I felt really good."
	She is by no means done with her journey. Her effort and attitude will continue to lift her back toward the top of the track and field world.
"My goal is to be competitive again," Green said. "I don't want to go by the wayside and just blend in with the rest of the crowd. I still want to be able to stand out on the team; I want to stand out in the conference. I feel like since I am here, I don't want to hide behind my injuries."
The effort and determination displayed by Green is not lost on her, but she is by no means one to boast on herself. Her main hope is that other people can learn to have the same sort of attitude toward life and adversity.
"I have had people tell me that I am their idol and I don't really understand it, because it really wasn't tough," Green said. "I don't want to discredit the blessings I have had, but it just kind of came, and I worked with it. I want people to be able to understand that it's never the end, it's not over."
	While the months of grueling rehab, still not completed, may be seen as "not tough" by Green, those who know her are still amazed at what she has been through and the attitude she displayed.
	"Her attitude has been amazing," Patchell said. "Knowing Jill, I never thought she would give up. She had a good attitude when she was in the hospital. She was never really down. With what she had been through, it would not have been surprising for someone to give up. She was worried, but she immediately focused on getting better."
	"The thing that contributed most to my recovery has got to be trying to stay as positive as possible," Green said. "I wasn't very depressed. I am really surprised when I think about it now."
		Perhaps the biggest reward of her effort and attitude is that she is again starting to feel like a regular student-athlete, struggling to balance classes and practice, and not a student-athlete who had a serious accident. Sometimes she even dreads practice, like any athlete; although now she uses her experiences as motivation.
	"I try to look back at it, even when I am going around the track and I am having a really hard time running. I say to myself, 'You cried and moaned about wanting to be back here, so finish it and do what you can,'" Green said. "I try to do whatever I can the best I can and I always say to myself, 'You wanted to be here.'"
She wanted to be running around that track and leaping into the long jump pit, and she never doubted that she would be back, despite the long odds against her. And those who know her never doubted that her positive attitude and fierce determination would fuel a successful return.