Making the invisible visible

Nothing new that I am suffering form acquired brain injury. Also nothing new that I am living my life the best I can, stay positive and make something good about the situation. I try to be as honest as possible about things I can and I cannot do, and that it can look like I am not injured, but that activities are costing energy and I have to spend hours in my favorite (but very silent) room to recover from it. And sometimes even days. Most of the time I do not really care, because I made the decision to do something fun, sometimes I do care, because it comes out of nowhere and I don’t understand what is going on. Why writing this all again, you might think? Because I got news that really blowed my self-esteem away, at least the part in how I live my life since the accident. I got mad, frustrated and sad. The day after it is better. Supported by the Mrs and friends. It helped talking about it. And I feel this is the time to announce a plan I am working on for a while.

I have a goal… Make the invisible consequences of brain damage visible

I want to get more awareness for people suffering from invisible brain damage. Make the invisible visible. Last week, the dutch brain society (Nederlandse Hersenstichting) got the Brain Awareness week - the invisible consequences. If you understand Dutch please take some time to visit their website. It is really interesting.

In general I believe that it is important that people are nice to each other, don’t judge too soon and if you don’t understand something, just ask. You could be surprised by the answer you will get. This whole plan is not about me, but I have to talk about me, so you understand why I am having this goal. I do realize you don’t see anything about me. If you talk to me, I can have a normal conversation for a while. I walk, run, cycle and swim, so yes I am an active person. What you don’t see is what happens when I am at home. I already wrote a blog about this (https://angeliquewammes.wixsite.com/sportandlife/single-post/pretty-intensive). So I invite you to read it (again) if you want more information about this part. Or listen to the first episode in this podcast: https://share.transistor.fm/e/tussen-je-oren-prikkelarm/playlist.

I am not the only one suffering from an invisible injury. Perhaps a bit too high to aim for, but I want to make their life easier. That they encounter less prejudices, because you cannot see it. That people learn to ask if they don’t understand it. That people still invite us, even if we have to cancel most of the appointments. We still love to get the invitation and always try to come. Sometimes it is just not our day. Or if people ask how you are doing and you say “I am doing okay” that you have a good day. It doesn’t mean the injury is over.

So how I am going to reach my goal? Well, of course, I need help. And you all can help really easily. And keep in mind… my goal is awareness…

From 10 till 13 September is the event “Klaverblad tocht” (in English Clover tour). In short (a larger description will be on my website soon) I ask people to go out and walk, run, bike, swim, skate or what kind of activity, record it with GPS and make it in the form of a four-leave clover. Or one-, two- or three-leave I you want. It is all up to you. If you enroll the event, you will get an e-mail with some question I would like you to think about during the event. And I will collect your photo’s, short movies and stories and combine them into a movie and blog.

You can start wherever you want. From home, a friends home, a sportclub… be creative. The best thing to do this with another person, so you can discus the questions. I have no clue how the world will look like then, but hopefully it is safe to go out in (small) groups again.

For how long? Whatever you feel good at. Why I give you 4 days? All these options has to do with awareness. For example, I cannot travel by car like I used to, it cost me too much energy. So I cannot go to a defined starting point. I already mentioned I have good and bad days and making appointments is difficult. Having this range of 4 days, makes that I can join as well. And so on.

I need help…

1. I need people to join me in this event. You can enroll on my website and more information to come.

2. I need people to spread this event... all over the world, the more people join, the better it is

3. I need help from people setting up this event. Making a poster, spread it online, write tekst and so on.

4. I need help in general. Maintaining my website for example. Just let me know if your are interested.

5. You can buy socks from me. I ask a bit more then that they will cost, but I need a bit of money to set up the whole event. All money I am not using in the end will be donated to the Hersenstichting. I will be transparant in this. How can you buy me: it is in the form of entering the Clover event. The design is still secret but I promise you they will be pretty.

That is it for now. More updates to follow. There is also something about me and ballet, still did not had the time to write that down probable. It will be guided with some small movie ;-)