Start of my Journey.
Today was my first day back to Headway in about a month and I don't know where to start! This place is amazing, I can't praise it enough, If I had not found out about it or applied for it I don't know what mental state I would be in right now. Headway provides rehabilitation services for people living with an Acquired Brain Injury. I am currently doing a vocational training program which I'm hoping will help me go on to further education.
Not many people know about places like Headway, once you get discharged from the hospital you feel like a fish out of water, you have no idea what to do or where to go, you literally feel helpless and hopeless. For months you're sitting around going stir crazy, but I suppose you need that time, to grieve and feel sad. You need to be lost for those few months so you can figure out where your going once you get back up on your feet.
Once my mother told me about Headway and that it's for people who have brain injuries like me, I did not want to go, I just turned 18, I wanted to be back in school, I wanted to go back to normal and be like my friends but I was still yet to learn that won't happen no matter how much I wished for it. I was in a state of depression as I didn't know where my life was going or how to get it back on track. My mother filled the form out for me and sent it, (little did i know it would be the most wonderful start to my journey), we got a reply back within a few months and by the following year I started my first day at Headway.
I hated my first day, I found it so over-whelming and scary, I did not know what to do, I remember going home that day and crying my eyes out on my mothers shoulder wondering how my life came to this, everyone there was ten years older than me or more it was difficult and some clients there had strokes but no one was near my age who had one so I felt isolated at the beginning, I was scared to show and tell people how I really felt, I didn't want to be a bother or give people my worries or seem like I wasn't holding it together. Truth is for the past year and a half I wasn't, most days I felt like I was barely getting by, until the 5th time coming out of hospital I realized I can't keep doing this forever and I need to concentrate on myself and with the help of Headway I will get to where I want to be slowly but surely.
Everyone there, the clients, the staff, the volunteers everyone is great, so welcoming and friendly like they have known you forever. It has brought me so much joy and has helped me to accept what has happened to me and days when I feel like I can't manage I'd go to the brain injury management classes where the staff would try and help you to understand and manage your symptoms and adapt to your life changes. They have all kinds of activities going on, for both clients and their families as they know that the family members need just as much support.
They are my second family. I love going in when I haven't been in there in a few weeks to catch up with everyone, I swear most times I only go in to socialize with everyone cause I miss them. It makes you feel great because no one judges you there, you are around people who have similar symptoms as you and who understand. They encourage you and for me at such a young age that made me feel like my life had a purpose that just because I had a brain injury and am so young it didn't mean I had to give up what I want for my future.
It helped me find myself and helped me to understand myself after having a traumatic event in my life. I have 1 year left on my vocational program and I have come such a long way in the past two years, I couldn't have done it without the headway staff or the services they provide. I have accepted what has happened to me, it has made me stronger, I still deal with it some days but I know I'm lucky to experience what I have at such a young age and to come out the other side so I can share the experience to help others. I feel lucky to have met such amazing people, I wouldn't change my life, I don't wish it never happened to me anymore, I'm so used to it now I can't imagine my life without a brain injury and I just want to say thanks to everyone at headway for that, they all helped me and encouraged me to never give up and for that I feel forever grateful.
Comments