A Nova Scotia student who was shot and paralyzed during a home invasion three months ago says she has every intention of attending her high school prom.

Last November, Ashley MacLean-Kearse was one of three teenagers shot at a home in Cole Harbour, N.S. A bullet that hit the 18-year-old’s spine paralyzed her from the chest down.

Three months and a lot of hard work later, the teen’s recovery has already surpassed doctors’ expectations. She’s expected to leave the hospital by the end of the week.

“When I do look back on where I was to where I am now, it’s actually kind of impressive,” MacLean-Kearse told CTV Atlantic on Wednesday.

The cheerful teen gets emotional when she thinks back to the day she was shot.

“I thought I was going to die when it first happened,” MacLean-Kearse said. “And that was a lot to take in.”

When she woke up in the hospital, she wasn’t able to talk due to a breathing tube.

Despite the long road ahead, MacLean-Kearse told her parents that she was determined to go to her prom in June.

“That’s my goal,” Maclean-Kearse said with a smile. “I’m going to go to prom and I’m going to get done up and I’m going to stand up in my dress and be like everybody else.”

Her resolve is strengthened by the support of friends, family, and even strangers.

MacLean-Kearse has goals beyond attending prom: she wants to walk again.

“No matter what that takes, I’ll work as hard as I can, I don’t care how long it’s going to take as long as it happens,” she said. “Even if I can’t walk, at least I tried instead of giving up.”

MacLean-Kearse said she wants her story to inspire others to speak out against violence.

“People who go around hurting other people and don’t get told on, they keep on doing it until it gets to the point where somebody gets really hurt,” she said, adding her injury could have been prevented “if people would have talked more.”

Since the shooting, her parents haven’t left her side. They are proud of how their daughter is handling her ordeal.

“Your whole life that you had is changed to something different, and for being 18, and handling it as well as she is, it’s amazing,” Wendy Kearse told CTV Atlantic.

In the future, MacLean-Kearse wants to join a wheelchair sports team, become a nurse and have children.

Four individuals are facing a number of charges, including attempted murder, in connection to the November shooting.

With a report by CTV Atlantic’s Kelland Sundahl