Editor’s note: This is the third of a three-part series detailing the story of Bryan Hooyman, freshman in pre-journalism and mass communication, who is returning as a student at Iowa State after an automobile accident in November 2002 that caused severe injury.

On the 6th floor of 300 Stanton Ave., Bryan Hooyman is sitting at his desk in his room when he receives a visitor – Ben Bryan, his roommate from his first semester at Iowa State.

The two shared a lighthearted moment about the day he first moved into his dorm room on Franklin House in Roberts Hall in 2002.

Ben got to the room first and thought he had the whole room to himself because the sign on the door read, “Ben Bryan.” So when Bryan arrived, ready to move in, he was very surprised.

“It was a nice running joke between us for a while,” said Ben, junior in geology.

But the jokes ended the day Bryan had his accident.

After enduring about six months of therapy and going to school for a while at Hawkeye Community College in Waterloo, Bryan is back at Iowa State – and the jokes have begun again.

“No offense – I still have bigger feet than you,” Bryan said to Ben.

They both laugh about it.

“You definitely don’t want to play me in Madden,” Bryan added.

There is nothing about Bryan’s attitude that indicates he has let his accident kill his spirit.

He even jokes about the accident, and says it was fate because he and Ben went to see the movie “The Ring” together about a week before the accident.

In “The Ring,” people die a week after watching a particular movie.

In a way, Bryan seems to say that he cheated death. Death is not the only thing he wants to cheat, however.

He now talks more slowly and his memory is not as good as it used to be, but he believes he can overcome these challenges and finish what he started four years ago: his journalism degree from Iowa State.

“My only concern is that he gets along in school and he is able to succeed,” said Bryan’s mother Deb.

Bryan stays in an apartment by himself. He has a student staff member from Lutheran Services who helps him out about 10 hours a week, because he can’t drive yet and needs help doing some chores around his apartment.

Steven Garrison, freshman in liberal arts and sciences-open option, is the student that has been assigned to help Bryan out.

“He is an awesome guy,” Garrison said. “He has a great outlook on life. I think he’ll do extremely well.”

He has already revived his Cyclone spirit, and he mocks his brother Andrew for choosing to go to the University of Iowa.

“If you feel a rumble, that’s because Iowa is playing Iowa State in a certain sport,” he said. “It’s not a hurricane, it’s just Iowa vs. Iowa State.”

Bryan recalled a conversation he had with someone while he was in the hospital.

“Hey Bryan, what year is it?” the person asked.

“Oh, 2002,” he replied.

“No, it’s 2003.”

And the conversation continued despite Bryan’s confusion.

“How old are you?”

“Eighteen?”

“No, you are 19.”

His birthday, Dec. 18, passed while he was in a coma, as did the New Year.

“Even though I am 22 now, I feel like I am 21. I found the fountain of youth,” he said with a smile.

It is this kind of attitude that Dennis Girsch, Bryan’s friend since eighth grade, said has brought Bryan this far.

“Originally, his parents said that he didn’t remember certain things. Then, I hadn’t seen him yet,” Girsch said.

“I visited him in the hospital, and the moment I walked in his face lit up. He remembered me, and he immediately wanted to know how I was.”

Many people think the fact that Bryan has made it this far is a miracle.

“He was not supposed to improve,” said his dad Joe. “We were to look for a long-term care facility for him, and in the last two weeks at the hospital, he made a dramatic improvement.”

And this is a jest to “The Ring,” to the doctors who believed he wouldn’t make it – and perhaps it is the best joke Bryan ever told.