Friday night lights. Roaring fans, announcers checking mics, slight chill in the air. The Burlington Edison High School football team runs onto the field. My cheer team and I prepare for a stunt as we are pumping up the crowd. Moments later I am thrown into the air staring into the crowds. The next thing I remember was waking up, it’s a new day, and I am in a hospital bed. My eyes were blurry and my head was pounding. That night at the football game I was dropped on my head, learning to find I suffered a traumatic brain injury. I had no idea what had happened. The last thing I was able to remember was staring at the crowd midair.
After my brain injury I had a really hard time in school academically. I had constant headaches, I even passed out a few times and developed a sensitivity to light and sound that I didn’t have before my injury. Concentrating on anything for more than five minutes was a daily challenge. I fell asleep at inappropriate times, repeated myself (not knowingly) and lost my ability to comprehend information I was trying to learn in class. My short term memory became weak and I struggled transferring information to long…show more content… It was like my entire body ached with weariness and my head was clouded from morning till night. Being able to sit through a whole class period was almost impossible for me. My teachers were very understanding of my situation and allowed me to sit in the back of the room so that I could get up every once in a while and pace back and forth to keep myself from falling asleep. There were days when I just could not get out of bed. Missing so many hours of classes during a six month period of school took an incredible amount of adjusting mentally and physically. Before I suffered a concussion I was an extremely active athlete. Participating in sports, cheer and dance is how I would normally spend my school year, now I could barely keep myself awake during most