The Person Who Understands by CJ

The Person Who Understands by CJ - May 2023 Scholarship Essay

Everyone has a moment that they remember forever.

For me, it came in August of 2022, just before I was supposed to move away to college, when everything changed. It came when a blind-siding jolt ruptured unexpectedly beneath my skull. I excused myself to the restroom, massaging cold water in my face with a few deep breaths. As I watched the unrecognizable ghost-white figure peering back at me in the mirror, my eyes began to well up with tears. For a moment, I simply gaped at this teary-eyed reflection and felt the pain searing through my head. I lipped two words and watched them form in the lips of the figure in the mirror: “what’s happening?” The figure began to blur into a haze, and suddenly, everything went black.

I was awoken by a bright light and an unfamiliar voice. “CJ, do you know what happened to you?” Standing above my body, which was now strapped to a hospital bed in the neuro ICU, was a nurse explaining that it was now the end of summer, and I had experienced an arteriovenous malformation that ruptured in my brain, causing a hemorrhage. I almost died, but brain surgery saved my life. Merely two days before I was supposed to move into Duke University, I was being told that I was now on a medical gap year.

The next two months were the most difficult of my life, as I cycled through different hospitals, being propelled down a long road of recovery and rehabilitation. I had to learn how to walk and speak from the beginning. But I did not back down. An arduous fight brought me back to myself, and the first thing I did was pack my bags. I flew across the world to Spain, where I volunteered with international patients going through the same hardships I had just experienced. I met patients from all over the world, using my story of recovery to help inspire them to reach for their own triumphs. A few months prior, I was the one with the brain injury. I was the one in the wheelchair. It was beyond surreal to become the one behind the wheelchair extending my hand to hold. It was the most powerful thing I have ever done.

Today, at the end of my medical gap year, I am more ready than ever to begin my future at Duke. Neuroscience saved my life, and allowed me to learn more about others facing the same peril. It opened the door for me to make that impact. Now, I plan on studying neuroscience at Duke, with the possibility of majoring in it after I get the opportunity to explore it for a year. Perhaps I can continue to use my story to help others with whom I connect personally. When I was facing my brain trauma, I didn’t believe anyone understood what I was going through. But now, I can be the person who understands.