I already posted about my visit to Indianapolis and how I'm heavily leaning to moving there after graduation in May and one more fabulous summer in Colorado to enjoy the sunshine and not having a serious job or being in school. Just that thought makes me so freaking excited. A lot to get through these next few months first, but I think I deserve some time off after everything that went down 22 months ago and all that had to change in my life because of it.
My trip to MI with my family was wonderful and enlightening. As always, my family went overboard with presents that was too much. Our time together of playing games and cards was important and I continue to yearn for that as I am away in Denver studying once again. There is so much on my plate of things to do in the next few months. I have to complete my internship, and much to my surprise, my hours have come much easier than I thought they might. I have to take my comps, which is my comprehensive exam of everything I have learned over the last 3.5 years. Minor interruption in the hospital last year, and as I have picked up the study guide, I’ve looked at some of the material from classes from my first semester in the program. Yeah, stuff from development and theories from Spring 2008... Wow. Please come back to me.
So now I'm back in Denver, my last night of my 20's, and I have a ton of unpacking and reorganizing to do for the next few weeks. This has always been a very reflective time of year for me. What great things happened in the last year? What not so good things happened? What do I want to have continue, and what needs to be cut out? Things have been especially reflective for the past two years with my near-death experience, and I don't think I will ever be the same. The 25th will never be a normal day for me, although the last two months it has come and gone without me having to dwell or think about "It's been ___ since the stroke". I saw friends from high school when I was back in MI, but I didn't know who knew and who didn't know about the stroke, so I didn't bring it up either. It actually didn't come up very much, which was kind-of a relief. Since I don't look any different, there is nothing to "tip" anyone off that things are any different with me, and I wouldn't know how to talk about it if they did bring it up, so I just remained silent about it. I think for sooo long I've just been deceived by the lie that it has to be the first thing that people notice about me and it makes me "defective" (Which I'm accepting is in fact a lie) that it's nice to hear that it's NOT the first thing that other people notice about me or how they view me. My massage therapist Shellie (who Ive been going to for 7 months) mentioned right before I left "Is that your scar?" when massaging my neck. I told her it was, but was surprised that it was the first time that she had felt it. Once again, I've thought she had for all this time, but that's part of believing the lie. The stroke has radically altered my life and where I was headed, for the better. I like things better now. Life comes with a LOT more challenges living with a TBI, but my recovery story is atypical and I'm very thankful for the life I have now and where I think I might be headed instead. I'm incredibly lucky and ever so grateful. I want to live from that gratitude and thankfulness every day since I've been given a second chance. I want others to see that gratitude lived out within me. I have a LOT to be thankful for. So those are my thoughts on the eve of my last night in my 20's. Thanks for continuing to follow along!
Love, Amy Christine
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