City: Fort Wayne

Brain Injury: On an early February morning in 1992, while returning from a college road trip, my friend who was driving fell asleep at the wheel.  We went straight on a curve and hit a tree.  I sustained a traumatic brain injury and spent the next month in a coma, rehabilitation over a span of 168 days.

Explanation of Mask: My mask is intended to represent a (harleq-vin-esque) style in which half is shaded by the state of Indiana where I was born, raised, and educated.  It is intended to suggest a quality of nature, as indicative of  a life both pre-injury and post-injury.  I am now a much different person, both with personality and emotionally.  Since my injury, I have returned to school, eventually graduating Magna Cum Laude, completing most of a graduate degree program.  I am now a recreational therapist with experience working with others who have sustained brain injuries and people who are dealing with threats to their mental health.