Optimism is a powerful tool in winning the daily battles. It's easy to focus on all that is going wrong and lose sight of the little things that make us happy. Things that we used to take for granted, things that we must now put extra effort towards in order to accomplish. Things that used to be as trivial as brushing one's teeth. This is my reflection on some of the things that I once did without thought but became difficult post-concussion. No specific order.
- watch a tv show
- watch an entire movie
- listen to music other than SR-71 and Eve 6
- sleep without earplugs
- sleep through the night
- wake up and look forward to the day
- make breakfast for the family
- take an accidental crack across the head (from our child) with wooden spoon
- drive for more than 15-30 minutes without a break
- drive at all
- mow the lawn
- crawl through the attic
- beat the headaches (like someone had a finger on each temple and was pushing in, slowly)
- look at a computer screen without wearing sunglasses
- be in a bright room without wearing sunglasses
- get up on a ladder
- remove and reinstall the infant car seat
- install a thermostat
- lead and complete a project at work
- start then admit that I could not handle leading a different project
- push our child back and forth down the hall in a diaper box
- sit somewhere on the bus other than priority seating (and therefore have people stop silently judging me for having sat there)
- stand on the bus ride to work
- smile
- be optimistic
- suck up my pride and accept help with simple tasks
- sharing my story publicly (on the Internet!)
- pick up fly our child through the air around the house
- pick up our child at all
