City: Waynesville

Brain Injury: Lighting equipment fell, while I was working on stage. I literally had no idea what hit me, just that my nose was crunching in my head as I collapsed. They said it was just a broken nose….then within days things changed.

Explanation of Mask: I wanted to show how different what people see on the outside is from my insideworld. I kept getting told by folks, “well you look good!” as if that is the most important thing. I was foggy headed, dizzy most of the time, constant headaches for 3 years. My vocabulary went from 3 syllables to 4 letter words. No doctors seemed to see or hear me. They said, “There is so much we don’t know about the brain, but no, that can’t be the cause.” Why don’t they want to learn from us? We are going through this, and can inform from the inside of TBI. It has been 5 years now, and I continue to heal and grow; mostly by not giving up or believing, “it is as good as it gets.” We can heal together faster!!!!!