Then: In August 2007, during the first week of classes, 16-year-old Blacksburg High School student and football player Patrick Day suffered a stroke that damaged his spinal cord.

He had been in cosmetology class at school and began to feel sick. Day said he went to the nurse's office and returned to class. He realized something was really wrong when his fingers could not turn off his iPod, he said.

Doctors said the spinal injury was extremely rare in someone as young as Day, and they could not explain why he suffered the stroke. He spent three weeks in the Kluge Children's Rehabilitation Center in Charlottesville, trying to regain motion in his limbs. But he had lost all feeling in his extremities and was left paralyzed from the neck down.

The community rallied behind Day, donating thousands of dollars through a foundation and various fundraisers that led to the purchase of items such as an accessibility van. During games, the Blacksburg football team wore his No. 20 on their helmets in his honor.

"My day is not as good as it would be if he was there, making me laugh," fellow player Chane Jackson said then.

Chane's parents, Curtis Jackson and Tonya Smith-Jackson, soon became spokespersons, of sorts, for the Day family while he was being treated.

Day set a goal for himself that, after the rehab, he would walk out of the Charlottesville hospital and run track that spring.

Now: Day returned to school in the winter of 2007, but was using a wheelchair. He uses an aide to navigate the school's hallways and takes multiple medications throughout the day.

When he returned, "I found out who was actually there for me," he said.

A couple of friends, but not many, stopped spending time with him once he started using the wheelchair, he said.

He never made it to the track team because he's still recovering mobility in his body and has other related health problems.

Day undergoes physical therapy three days a week, but he said last month he can feel himself becoming stronger.

Still, doctors can't tell him when, or if, he'll be back on his feet. The stroke has changed his life, although he would say it's not that different.

"I focus on my grades more because I can't play sports," he said shortly before Christmas.

Despite his stroke, Day is the typical high-school senior trying to determine what he wants to do after high school. Day was in his second year of a cosmetology class on his way to becoming a barber when he had the stroke. He'd planned to use the money from cutting hair to attend college. Friends said he hasn't changed, joking that he's still "rude."

He turns 18 on Sunday and has just sent applications to Virginia Tech, Radford University and New River Community College.

Day is scheduled to graduate from Blacksburg High in June. He'll complete his cosmetology program but, because of the extent of his condition, won't be able to take the state examinations to get his license.

Before the stroke, he said he had thought about studying engineering in college because his father, who lives in California, is an engineer. Now, he said, he's realized that could necessitate using his hands too much.

Instead, he's thinking about law.

He said he'd like to stay in this area because it's special to him.

"I can say with certainty that there is no greater love than the love shown to a stranger," Day said.