Feature Story
Finding Joy and Identity After a Life–Altering Trial with Celestial Elam
On Sept. 18, the Southern Virginia University community gathered in the Knight Arena to hear from 26 year-old Celestial Elam, who shared her powerful journey of faith, resilience, and discovering true identity following a life-altering car accident at age 16.
The eldest of six siblings, Elam grew up with a passion for athletics and dreams of playing Division I volleyball. Those plans changed instantly when her family’s car collided with a construction truck on the highway.
Elam suffered severe injuries, including collapsed lungs and a complete spinal cord injury at the T9 vertebra that left her paralyzed from the waist down. Yet, as she recovered in the intensive care unit, she recalled feeling something she did not expect: peace.
“I never once felt afraid,” said Elam. “I just felt peace and so much happiness getting to see my family. I was just so happy that I got to wake up and that everything was going to be okay.”
Having suffered similar injuries and now in wheelchairs, Elam and her sister had to relearn basic daily tasks and functions. They turned their recovery exercises into friendly competitions, finding ways to push and encourage each other.
But returning home brought a different kind of challenge—watching her teammates continue playing the sport she loved and wrestling with the loss of an identity that had been so closely tied to athletics.
To help, her family started a daily “tender mercies” log, looking each day for ways they could recognize God’s hand in their lives.
Elam’s family was also determined that the accident wouldn’t keep her and her sister from still experiencing and participating in life. That meant finding new ways to do things they had done before, and trying things they might not have imagined, like building homes in Mexico using four-wheelers.
For Elam, it also meant eventually serving a full-time mission at Temple Square in Salt Lake City. That experience, she said, reshaped her understanding of her worth in an entirely new way.
“Getting to serve at Temple Square was truly one of the biggest blessings,” Elam testified. “This is where I found my identity again. It helped me realize that I was a daughter of God, and no matter what was going on around me, that was never going to change.”
That understanding became central to the message Elam shared with students: look up and turn out.
“Looking up,” she explained, means turning to Heavenly Father in prayer. “Turning out” means looking beyond your own struggles and finding ways to serve those around us.
She pointed to her siblings as prime examples. During her recovery, her two younger sisters became daily caregivers and her brothers stepped up to help support the household during her recovery.
“We all go through hard things, seen and unseen,” said Elam. “The day is still going to go on, and we can choose to lay down, or we can choose joy. If you look up and turn out, you will truly find joy in whatever you’re going through.”
Addressing whether she would undo the accident if given the chance, Elam shared that the experience ultimately brought her closer to the Savior and gave her a perspective she would never trade away.
“All of the things that we go through become a part of who we are,” Elam concluded. “As President Russell M. Nelson said,‘The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives, but everything to do with the focus of our lives.’ Real joy comes from turning outward, serving others, and looking up to our Savior Jesus Christ.”
The forum opened with the audience singing “Onward, Christian Soldiers,” followed by a performance of “Sing” by Accolade. The campus community also joined together in singing the traditional closing hymn “Love One Another.”
