How a Brain Injury Made Me Smarter…And How You Can Get Smarter Without One
Are you smart? Of course you are! You are reading and writing on Medium. You are reading other people’s articles because you’re curious and you are hungry for knowledge.
What Makes You Smart?
I used to believe the best measures of my intelligence were external: grades on a report card, scores on tests, promotions at work, how much money I was being paid.
Then, on the cusp of my 50th birthday, I sustained a brain injury. I lost my ability to read and write. I developed aphasia, which means I may know the word I want to use in my head, but I can’t get it out of my mouth. Having worked all of my career as a technical writer and corporate communicator, this was a huge blow to my ego and to my checking account when I could no longer do my job. Now, almost a decade after my accident, I still struggle reading, visual distortion, balance, and occasional aphasia, but I’ve adapted and I have no desire to go back to “normal.”
What is normal anyway? Life is full of changes. We either adapt or we don’t. If we adapt, our new normal becomes normal, until the next change hits us and we are required to create another new normal.
