7 years, 4 months, 22 days

I wish I had started writing earlier, but I didn't have the motivation to spend what little energy I had on writing about the hell I was going through.. I'm going to start now, 7 years, 4 months, and 22 days later.

I am Lea, 21 years old and I was injured May 15, 2004. I was 13 years old when my life was altered. My life is separated into three parts, who I was before, who I would have been, and who I am. I'll start with who I was before.


Before: I was born in a little blue house in Nederland, Colorado. I ran before I walked, I hated ice cream, and growled when I ate. I started gymnastics when I was 3 years old and could do a left hand, one handed, cartwheel before I could do a somersault. I started competing when I was 4, the youngest at my gym. The day in 1st grade when we first learned how to add, when I got home I went up to my parents and asked "what if you take away?" and within 30 minutes I was multiplying double digits. -- In other words, I was gifted.

I was invited to be part of a private school for the "Gifted and Talented" not because I had the highest IQ, but because I was a jock who was intelligent.. I was the only jock in the school. I was taught next to the little geniuses of Boulder, Colorado.. So when I went back to public school when I was 10, and I got the name of Genius, I was insulted.. I knew what a genius was, and I wasn't it. Yes, I was smart, and accelerated for my age group (skipped a grade, and two grades higher math on top of it), but I was no genius.

The school in a whole was not very supportive; teachers telling me I shouldn't be where I was, kids ridiculing me because they thought I thought I was better than them.. It made me hate my smarts, want to be normal... like them. I remember the first time I truly wished for my smarts to go away, it was in 8th grade. -- Seriously people, be careful what you wish for.

A month before the end of 8th grade was when I was assaulted, and my life changed.

The "Accident": May 15th, 2004 was just a normal day, my friend and I went down town to hang out, nothing special. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure if I remember it, or if this is just the images I put to the stories I heard. So, we go to McDonalds (my dad always told me not to eat fast food.. man was he right!) and were with a group of guys.. the delinquents, of course. One of them gathered all the trays, decided it would be funny to pretend to hit his friend in the back of the head, and by some sort of fate, I happened to be the one right across from the kid. The trays never hit him in the back of the head, but rather my face.

The tray, hit me right under the nose, and my head then ricocheted into my friends head; instant whiplash. They all say I never blacked out, but who knows, they lied a lot about the events of the day. My friend cleaned me up, since my lip was bleeding, and after who knows how long, after I chased people through the drive through, (a by standard who knew me told me that part)  they finally decided to tell someone. They took me to my parents store, when I got there I was dizzy, and a nurse who just happened to be there checked me out. -- My pupils were different sizes, apparently that's bad or something..

I was awake the entire time, yet I couldn't remember from 10-am until 7-pm. I "woke" up in the hospital, I had no idea what had happened. It was terrifying.

For now, that's where I'm going to stop. Next time I'll explain the process of finding out what was wrong with me, and where I had planned to be by this time, before the TBI.