A former world champion cheer athlete, Makayla Noble suffered a severe tumbling accident in September 2021 that resulted in a spinal cord injury. Now, she emphasizes the importance of trusting God, and taking times of struggle one day at a time.

PEER: When did you start cheerleading? What drew you to competitive cheerleading?

Makayla Noble: I started off in gymnastics. I really enjoyed tumbling, so my parents put me in gymnastics and then the only thing I liked about gymnastics was the tumbling. We realized that was more like cheerleading than gymnastics. So, we switched over to cheerleading at a gym where I was born and raised, in Indiana, and it was super small. It was run by the high school cheer coach, so everybody did school cheer and then competitive cheer. I just fell in love with the sport and did it all the way up until my accident.

PEER: In 2021, you suffered a severe injury from a tumbling accident that left you paralyzed from the chest down. What were your initial thoughts when you first found out about your prognosis, and how did you initially cope with those feelings? 

MN: It was interesting. When my accident happened, I stayed conscious the entire time and was very aware of everything that was going on. I was the one keeping those around me calm, which was crazy in a situation like that. But I knew something was very, very wrong the second I hit the floor—it was outside in a friend’s backyard, and I knew that something in my body had broken. I thought I broke my neck and my back. Again, I didn’t know what the feeling of being paralyzed felt like, but I thought that that had happened because it felt like half my body just disappeared and went away. I was in so much pain, but I couldn’t feel my body. It was a really, really weird sensation.

So, when the ambulance picked me up and my mom came, they started doing different tests saying, “Can you feel this? Can you feel this? Can you wiggle your toes? Can you do this for me?” All the answers to the questions were “no,” which was obviously devastating for my mom and me. But I think I was just in the fight or flight mode; I wasn’t really like, “Oh, this is so sad.” I was more like, “Okay, I have to make sure my mom’s okay because I can kind of tell she’s freaking out behind me.” Then I went to the hospital, and I had a spinal surgery. I was in the ICU for four weeks after that. When they initially did tell me my prognosis, my parents said that I just said, “I know,” and that it wasn’t a surprise to me that I was very aware of my situation. It was something that I was like, “Okay, this is my situation. I don’t really have an out of this situation. I just have to deal with this and take it one day at a time.”

P: In the following weeks, during recovery, you were motivated to get better and regain strength. What was the driving motivator during recovery?

MN: I think everything was so unknown of what my life would look like after, and the future is so scary for all of us. We have no idea what it’s going to look like, but seeing what my new life was going to look like and then thinking about the future was so scary. I really tried to stick to the, “Okay, we just have to focus on today and do what we can today.” I’m the type of person that really enjoys working out and getting stronger but also that’s something that really helped my mental health as well. So, I think one of the hardest things for me was being stuck and laying in a hospital bed for weeks on end. In the initial state, I couldn’t move any parts of my body. As time went on, I started to gain some movement back in my arms and eventually I got all the feeling back in my body, which was super cool. But I think really it was just trusting God in the situation. When a situation like this comes about, I think there’s two ways you could go. You could blame God and be angry at Him and just say, “Why me? What did I do to deserve this?” But I never went down that path. Obviously, there’s been times where I’ve questioned Him and had some hard conversations with family and friends about faith. But I really just stuck to the side of, “God, I need you, I need you right now” and talking to Him and trying to understand in our human brain why this is happening and what can be good that comes out of this.

P: How has your relationship with cheer changed?

MN: I still love cheerleading. I actually went back my senior year of high school—I got injured when I was a junior—and I went back and did school cheer in my wheelchair at my high school and was on the sidelines doing cheer with my friends. I didn’t want to do that—that was something that my coaches and my teammates were like, “Makayla, you have to do this. You’ve done this your whole life. This is your senior year. You’re surrounded by all your best friends. This is something you have to do, and we are really going to support you on this.” I’m so glad I did. It was so scary, and it was really hard going from being a world champion athlete and being at the top of my game to sitting on the sidelines in a wheelchair and being the oddball out and not being able to do everything as good as I wanted to or even close to it because of my body. I still love the sport. I love it so much. I still have so many friends in it that are cheering in college as well, and still doing competitive cheer.  

I get the question a lot, like, if my kids one day wanted to do cheerleading, would I let them? I say, yeah. I love the sport. I really do. I think it’s amazing. It’s taught me so many life lessons, and I think a lot of the work ethic and grit that I learned through the sport really helped me through my recovery. So, I still have a great relationship with it. I’m still friends with all my coaches and teammates and I wouldn’t go back and change it. I love the sport.

P: That’s so good that your friends and your coaches were there to support you. So, how did you come to know Jesus? Did you always have a relationship with Him?

MN: Yes. My family, we grew up going to church. I think we moved to Texas when I was in middle school and we attended a church, but not regularly. Just as we got older and got more into our sports, I had practices on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights, and so I got disconnected from the church a little bit. But again, I think looking back on God’s divine timing, I really decided I wanted to have my own relationship with Christ rather than more my parents’ relationship with Him. I wanted it to be mine. So, it was actually three months before my accident, I got baptized and I went on a church camp trip to the beach. It was beautiful. My best friends are amazing godly women.

One of my best friends, Evelyn Grace, really encouraged me when I was going through some really tough times before my accident, with family issues and different things to really lean on God because He knows and He understands. So, Evelyn Grace was my leader and mentor, and I got to ask her all the questions and with no judgment. She really helped me bring my life back to God. She got to be there when I was baptized, and every day I was in the ICU, she was right there by my side. She’s still one of my best friends to this day. It’s amazing. But it was really interesting because again, looking back on it, I had just rekindled this fire with God right before my accident happened. So, even though I restarted, I still felt like I was baby in the faith; still trying to learn so much, and I am still to this day, but it was really cool because I was on fire for the Lord and really changed how I was living my life and created some good habits before my accident happened that I’ve been able to carry over, which has been super cool.

P: So, how has your faith and relationship with God helped you when the injury happened, during recovery, today? In other words, how has your faith in God sharpened or grown during this recovery process?

MN: It’s grown tremendously. I think being stripped away of so much of my life and my body and independence, I had to rely on those around me and God. My family has been with me through this all, but none of them understand what it’s like to be in my position, to be in my mind and in my body and having to get help with every single thing possible. So, I think I’ve really just looked to God because I’m like, you understand what I’m going through, you understand what I’m feeling. I talk to Him about a lot of those situations and thoughts and scenarios. But yes, I think by taking away so much of what was going on in my world, I realized I don’t need anything: “I don’t want anything. I want you, God.” He’s just been so faithful and so amazing throughout this entire process that I can’t help but be so thankful for Him and all that He’s done.

P: What advice do you have for anyone struggling to find hope amidst traumatic circumstances?

MN: I first off would want to say that for a lot of people, if they recognize me or see me in public or we’re having a conversation, people like to assume I still have hard days, or say that I don’t struggle at all, or I don’t show that I struggle. I try and be vulnerable and transparent on social media, but it’s hard as a human to admit that you’re struggling with something especially mental health, which can be hard to express and people don’t handle that well. But I let people know that yes, I absolutely do struggle, and I say, I’m struggling, or I struggle just as much as you, but they’re about different things. Now my things are much more visible. I struggle with a lot more physical challenges rather than mental challenges that nobody can see but they are absolutely just as real. I struggled really badly with depression before my accident. I can tell you those bad days are just as bad as the bad days I have now, but they’re about different things.

But I think my physical disability has made me more open to sharing about my challenges and struggles as well, because people can see I’m not okay. So, that opens the door to the conversation. Then I let them know that just because you’re not in my situation does not mean that you have to pretend like you’re not struggling or battling anything. Because again, all those emotions and all those feelings are just as real, they’re just about different things.

So, for someone who is listening to this or reading this, I would just say to not downsize whatever you’re going through and that your emotions are valid. It can be so hard, and you can feel so alone, especially in a situation like this, but I think to find your people, mentors or people online to follow and watch and learn from them. Then the best thing to do is to talk to our Father. I find that He’s the only one who truly knows how you are feeling, and I think there’s so much comfort in that.

P: Correct me if I’m wrong here, but you’re also an artist. What inspires your art and how long have you been creating?

MN: I don’t know if I consider myself a real artist. I do love being creative and my older sister, Mariah, is definitely the artist of the family. She is amazing at everything she does. I’m more of the athletic sister. But during recovery and being at home and not having the use of my hands, I’ve really found a love and a passion for painting, which is something I did before just for fun. But now it’s kind of funny. My family and I joke that I’m a better artist now than I ever was before because of the patience that I have with it now. I find it so therapeutic. I was transported to a rehab facility for spinal cord injuries and head injuries. There, I found a love for painting and  found it so therapeutic. We adapted ways that I am able to use the paintbrush and markers and different things. I find it soothing to just put on a show or listen to some of my favorite music and just paint. Again, I’m not trying to make it beautiful or anything crazy. It’s more just the process of it that is really nice to me.

P: How do you practice self-care?

MN: I definitely practice self-care through working out and getting my body moving. Moving my body and getting the endorphins going and getting my heart rate up is something that has always been a form of self-care for me. I really enjoy that. My mom and my sister are my best friends, so spending time with them. I still love to be creative, do my makeup, do some artwork, and just be outside.

P: Is there anything you’re currently listening to?

MN: Oh, my goodness. I love reading. I love reading all different types of books, and I have a little library going. I do love true crime; I’m not going to lie. I think those are very interesting. But there’s some amazing Christian authors out there, and there have been some amazing people who have gone through traumatic accidents like me that have written books. I’ve gotten some of those gifted to me, and I’ve read some of those, and they’re amazing. I can relate to them in a way that a reader who has not been through those experiences can’t. But that is one of my biggest goals in life is to become an author. Even before my accident, which was one of my biggest dreams in life. I always loved reading and writing, and I wanted to publish my own book someday. So, hopefully that’s going to happen. I definitely have a story now. I still feel like I’m in the story but who knows? I continue to write and journal everything down. I’ll just have to put it all together and get some help, but I’m excited for that.

P: What is a Bible verse that’s been on your heart recently?

MN: My sister and I, through our little creative ventures, did a collaboration with a company. It’s about Isaiah 43:2a: “When you go through deep waters, I will be with you.” Again, nothing crazy. We all know that one. But it’s just something I’ve latched to. I have such a love and passion for the ocean and being able to get back out in the water has been one of the best things. I’ve relearned how to swim, but I can swim, and I just went surfing, adaptive surfing.

Follow Makayla on Instagram at @makaylanoble.