Personal Narrative: Brain Injury

It was a Tuesday evening, September 13, 2011. There were two minutes left on the clock during just an ordinary soccer game of my sophomore year of high school. A player on the opposing team had a breakaway towards our goal with only myself between him and our goalie. With only stopping the ball in mind, I sprinted across the field and slide tackled the ball from the opponent. This collision caused the other player to flip off his feet and his knee found his way directly into my left temple. I immediately knew something was wrong. I had previously sustained seven other concussions, although they were all very minor, from various activities, yet I knew this one was different. I stood on the field as the game ended, disoriented and confused. I

Since I looked “normal”, I must be healed. That was simply not the case. Throughout the rest of my high school career, myself, my parents, tutor, and teachers that understood what having a brain injury entailed, would have to fight with the rest of the administration and teachers to get me the accommodations that I needed. In meeting after meeting for my IEP, there would be arguments about what I really needed and how bad my condition was. In one of the most memorable meetings, my mother couldn’t be there due to having to take so many days off of work already to care for me, so my dad attended. Most of the special education staff, teachers, and administrators were attempting to reduce my tutoring, change expectations for what I would achieve to things that were just not realistic, and I was having a “bad brain day” and was struggling to advocate for myself. My dad listened to the disagreements between those that understood and those that didn’t. When asked for his input he simply explained that even though he struggled to understand what I was experiencing and how I could appear to be “normal”, he trusted and believed that what I was saying was the truth and that only I knew what was truly going on in my brain. These few sentences not only brought almost everyone to tears, but also helped people understand that it was not their perception of where they thought I was that mattered, but rather what I was experiencing. Even though I still had to fight every step of the way, sometimes winning and sometimes losing, this one conversation helped shift the mindset of those that doubted