Brain Injury Support Group Inspiration by Michael

Brain Injury Support Group Inspiration by Michael - January 2017 Scholarship Essay

How has an extracurricular or a volunteer opportunity helped inspire you to make a difference in your community?

My experience in being part of a brain injury support group has inspired me to make a difference in the lives of traumatic brain injury survivors. I have a desire to be a mentor in supporting these people in their relationship challenges. I also want to be a resource helping each person handle being a survivor. I also value advocating for this group of people by helping educate others in how to relate to individuals with brain injuries. I want each survivor to be strong in all the ways I have mentioned.

I have learned through my experience in a brain injury support group what it is like to be a survivor of a brain injury. Through these different perspectives, I have gained insight in how to be a mentor to others with my own experiences. Each person is valued as they are and supported in their life situation. Each person’s life situation is treated equally important as each of the others who are in the group. This emphasis on human value and dignity inspires me to want to help others too, with the life experiences and knowledge and people skills that I have achieved at this point in my life.

The life experiences I’ve had so far as a brain injury survivor has helped me to be a resource to fellow brain injury survivors. I am motivated to be a good listener to hear other survivor’s stories. I also like to encourage others in their journey to grow to cope with their struggles well. It is often helpful for me to share my own stories. This way, others can relate to what I have been through and benefit from my life experience. In the big picture, I’m interested in every survivor growing to deal with their struggles. All of these motivators to be a good resource also draw me to be advocate to help others understand how to relate to brain injury survivors.

It is also important to me that I help advocate for survivors to help people understand how to communicate with them. I want to make a difference in the community to help others understand the challenges of people with brain injuries. This can be as simple as explaining the symptoms and then helping others learn how to relate to these symptoms. My own experience, with my injury, has taught me an awareness of how many people don’t understand brain injury symptoms. This has motivated me to help others learn ways to communicate with brain injury survivors. All of this has been the inspiring motive to make a difference in the lives of others.

The contribution to the community by making a difference in the lives of brain injury survivors is very important to me. From here, I want to continue to participate in these roles I’ve described through the brain injury support group I’ve been involved in. I also desire using each of these ways in making a difference in survivors’ lives by volunteering with local nonprofits and hospitals that serve this group of people. I then want to take these experiences and begin to pursue through education and work concrete ways of impacting lives of others. In the end, I desire for everyone to be educated and understand how to relate to the traumatic brain injury population.