JOE
In August of 2001, Joe crashed while riding his bicycle and incurred a mild traumatic brain injury. He was wearing a helmet which lessened the damage. At age 40, he enrolled at UNH to pursue a degree in Recreational Management. He loves the campus environment but is investing significant energy learning to successfully complete his courses. Although he physically looks the same, there are dramatic differences in the way his brain works now and how he approaches his academic and personal life. Still an avid biker, Joe hopes to lead bike trips in America and Europe after he graduates.
Read All of Joe's Story
or click below for individual sections
The Challenges of a Head Injury
Returning to School with a Head Injury
Choosing a Career Path
Strategies
The Benefits of Asking for Help
Being Emotionally Alive
Future Goals
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BEING
EMOTIONALLY ALIVE
Two weekends ago I went to the Martin Luther King summit. I found the application in my book bag. It occurred to me somebody wants ME to go. When I found out I could go, I got kind of sick. My body was expressing my fear. This is two days and nights of events and sleeping in a cabin with other students. I am 42 and they would be about 18. I wouldn’t know anybody. Yet it was time to start pushing into my fears. The logic reasoning side told me all the reasons why not to do this. My heart said this is for you, fill the paper out and send it in. I am learning more and more to honor the heart felt sensation.
The greatest benefit and growth will happen if I press into my fears. My natural inclination is not to go there. I have built the wall so thick and high, I am perfectly safe. But the fort is built on fear. One of my lessons is that I need to take it down. I am learning to understand my fears, honestly assess them, and move towards them. I am opening up my emotional spectrum. I am ready and willing to have the full experience of being here.
I was so emotionally dead before the head injury. I protected myself from everything. I either engaged in something my way or not at all. Some of the things I do now, I would never have attempted. It causes me to wonder: is there a grander picture to the whole thing? I am more present in the present moment. I notice how I am feeling and I respond to those feelings. I am discovering the part of me I never knew before. I am more emotionally alive.