About Brain Injury
by Robyn Alexander
Life is defined as the time from birth to death. We think of life as a long tour or journey through time.
I remember when I was young, my folks would show us home movies-that's what they were in the old days, not videos. It sure was neat to see ourselves as we were, to see how we've grown and changed. It seems the video camera is a machine to record our journey through life-sounds like Star Wars. Of course we only catch the highlights, and usually only the good ones at that. But when we look back, the whole journey comes into focus, more like the humanistic Lost in Space show was. We have our own video show running all the time and each person views their show differently, and even is influenced by the person's mood at the moment of presentation.
The other day I noticed a gray hair and it just got me wondering what the next part of my life's journey will be like. It's been a round-about journey so far. I was born -crawled around, learned to walk, romped about, swam, jogged 10ks, skied, wind surfed and even skydived when I was a dare devil. All this happened in high school and then I journeyed on to college. I studied Aerospace Engineering in Florida and finished up at the University of Minnesota. From there I joined the U.S. Air Force and was stationed at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
I was hit by a semi.
I was in a coma.
And the journey began all over again.
When I woke up six weeks later, I had to learn to walk, talk and think all over again. I even went through the "terrible twos," but I was 23 years old, so I got really terrible.
I moved on, through the so-called teenager stage, where I started doing drugs-antiseizure drugs! Everyone thought I was just being a "moody teenager" at first, until they noticed familiar irregular actions.
I went through a period where THEY had ME experimenting with new drugs. The drugs would even make me feel high at times. I got toxic once or twice-my boyfriend was reading from the Torah in the synagogue while I was in the congregation and I wouldn't stop giggling and laughing, they tell me.
I think I'm finally growing up-I'm getting more okay with doing things wrong and accepting others telling that I've done things wrong. In fact, I welcome hearing people's feelings about things and thinking of better ways to do things rather than finding a way to "attack back."
A really good way we can change and improve is from feedback, but that sometimes leads us to feeling defensive: "Hey, who are YOU to tell me who needs to relax!"
We might want to stop finger pointing and look to use every chance we have to learn and grow. We need to think: "Wow, you're trying to give me advice to help make this journey less bumpy. That's nice of you."
On this new path in my journey, I've learned to write poetry-with or without rhyming; journaling-and through this combination I've found myself writing cards where I remember little things about a person to make things more personal. I find myself enjoying this. Those to whom I'm sending the cards to seem to enjoy as well (or they've learned to pull one over on me-I'm pretty short you know so that's not hard to do). You might hear that saying one of these days: "You've got mail" and get a card from me.
Let's think of earth as a giant space station like they've just put in place. All these modules or countries are docked close by to help each other survive. With this in mind we might be more understanding when people seem to be acting spacey. They're just getting ready for the next stage in our journey.
We're all here on our own venture through life. Let's look to help smooth out the bumps. But, as you know, with our roads that's a continual job. Our pay is the smiles and "thank yous" we get from others traveling this journey too.
Get your hiking boots on. Although it may seem like it's been long and hard, keep in mind that the journey is moving on. Look to enjoy and give all you can to your journey so that you can get what you can back.
As Robert Louis Stevenson once said: "We are all travelers here and the best we find is an honest friend."
Look to enjoy the journey!