Trafalgar teen finds success at Oklahoma State following accident

Progress and recovery has come quickly.

Last year at this time, Megan Murray faced an uncertain future. The Trafalgar teen had been in a horrific automobile accident in 2021 as she and two other teens were driving to the Indiana State Fair. Even months into recovery, Murray struggled to do simple tasks such as walking and talking.

But she refused to give up, and vowed to graduate high school, attend college and achieve the lofty goals she set for herself.

With dogged perseverance and the backing of seemingly the entire Indian Creek community, she’s kept that promise.

“It means everything to me. I have to come out of my head to process it. For me, in my mind, this was what I was supposed to do. But to go back and think about dealing with everything, it means so much to have everyone’s support,” she said.

Murray has completed her first semester at Oklahoma State University, earning a perfect 4.0 grade point average and landing on the school’s President’s Honor Roll. The animal science major has been active in various clubs at Oklahoma State, taking part in Block and Bridle Club, which unites students interested in animal agriculture, and the Oklahoma Collegiate Cattlewomen’s Association.

And even though she’s been more than 700 miles away in Stillwater, Oklahoma, she has felt consistent support from her hometown in Indiana.

“It’s amazing to see the community pouring (out support), still, a year-and-a-half later,” she said. “It makes me feel very loved to see that they still care. I love this community here.”

For the past four months, Murray has been acclimating herself to collegiate life, and taking part in those freshman year rituals that come with starting that next chapter of life.

She has made new friends across campus, including bonding with her roommate, fellow Hoosier Krista Brown, a Shelby County native. Together, they explored their new home in Stillwater, a college town of about 48,000 people, including about 26,000 students.

On weekends, they’d go to hear live music at the Tumbleweed, the local dance hall. They took part in beloved Oklahoma State traditions, such as watching the annual homecoming parade — known as “America’s Greatest Homecoming Parade” — and saw all of the chicken wire-and-tissue paper created by the school’s Greek community.

“I love it out here. I’ve fallen in love with it,” Murray said.

The fact that she’s been able to do any of it is still hard for Murray to grasp.

On Aug. 3, 2021, Murray was riding Kya Lasley and Keilyn Stauffer to the Indiana State Fair to show cattle when their pick-up truck was sideswiped by another truck on Interstate 65. The collision forced their truck over a bridge onto the street below.

The accident put Murray in the hospital for 98 days. She spent much of her senior year at Indian Creek High School in recovery, enduring 13 major surgeries while re-learning to walk again, feed herself and write. She had to overcome memory and vision problems.

Still, with the help of physical therapy, she was able to graduate from Indian Creek, as well as rejoin activities with her 4-H group. During this year’s county fair, she was able to show her animals, even winning reserve champion middleweight market steer, champion crossbred steer and reserve grand champion beef steer.

Her injuries still bother her sometimes; her back aches at times, and her elbow doesn’t fully extend, a result of the surgical reconstruction of the joint.

But she feels 99.5% recovered.

“I still have a couple of limitations, but none of them are life-changing, anymore,” she said. “I attribute a lot of that to how much I have to walk on campus. When I went out to Oklahoma, I was still pretty far-off from where I am now.”

Her physical condition isn’t the only change from her time at Oklahoma State. When Murray left for school in August, her goal was to work towards degrees in agriculture business, farm and ranch management, and animal science.

Getting into her coursework, though, she tweaked that plan to better fit her interests. She is now an animal science major with a business concentration.

“A lot of the other students who take an animal science degree already know the science behind it all. But I only started on the cattle and animal science side of things two years ago, so I don’t really have the main basics behind everything,” “So my animal science major will really give the science that I need behind it.”

As she looks ahead to her second semester, Murray is looking forward to an opportunity to attend the Cattle Industry Convention and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Trade Show in New Orleans, Louisiana, in February. Her hope is that the experience not only showcases the myriad careers and innovations within the cattle industry, but also opens the doors to potential internships.

“A lot of big companies within the beef industry will come out and do presentations on different things, so I’m interested in learning about them and discussing internships with them,” she said.

Murray also will participate in a study abroad program in June, traveling to Fiji to help residents of the island nation with a variety of agriculture-related projects.

Each of the experiences will add to the foundation she’s building toward a career in show animals and animal nutrition.

“It’s been really good to get out and have new experiences that I wouldn’t have had (in Johnson County),” Murray said.