I left school in 1985. School just wasn't the place for me. I guess I didn't have the right attitude. The first year I came out of school I went to work in a fish plant. I got to know a lot of fishermen. I always wanted to go on the water. I kept asking fishermen if they needed an extra hand. One day a fisherman offered me a job on his boat. I started right away. I was really excited. I made a good living fishing for thirteen years. I built a house, got married, and started raising a family.

In 1998, I had a bad accident which changed my life completely. I was out on the boat fishing. We had a lot of crab pots piled up on the deck of the boat. The seas were rough and the crab pots started to tip over. I tried to stop them from falling over. I got a bad injury. The muscles, nerves, and tendons in my back were severely injured. I went through all kinds of therapy and saw a lot of specialists. The pain still hasn't. gone away. I can't do any kind of heavy labor. In fact, there are days when I can barely walk.

Worker's Compensation suggested that I go back to school and retrain Cc On May 16, 2000, I started Adult Basic Education at the Gander Campus. It is about an hours drive from home. That is a problem because driving is often difficult. I am taking it one day at a time. Some days are worse than others, concentrating on school work can be difficult when I am in a lot of pain.

It would be nice to feel well enough to do a few odd jobs around the - house. I used to be a jack of all trades. I spent time in the woods and a lot of time fixing trucks and cars in my garage. It is frustrating not being able to do the things I enjoy.

Learning to live with my disability is not easy. Hopefully, going back to school will help me get a job I can handle. Maybe some day things will get better. There are new treatments being developed every day. I hope that one of them will help me.

Activity One

1. What kind of work did Baxter do before he was injured?

2. Describe how Baxter injured himself

3. Baxter stated that he was a "jack of all trades". What does he mean by this?

4. How do you think Baxter feels about the future?

Blends are words that begin with fl, pl, sl, bl, cl, or gl. Using these blends, can you answer the following questions?

Answers: black, sleep, fly, please, glue, slip, floor, cloud, flute, sled, blocks, flower, globe, flame, clean, flag, clothes, clock, plane, glad glove, blue.