Confessions of a Concussed Cyclist: “What do you do?”

August 9, 2018

I read a quote recently that said “everyone you meet always asks if you have a career, are married, have children, etc. as if life was some kind of grocery list.  But no one ever asks if you are happy.” In the past I never had a problem answering those questions: yes, I’m a special education teacher…no, I’m not married…no, no children. But then on August 19, 2014 I was hit by a car.  The impact was such that it rattled my brain, damaging it, resulting in a traumatic brain injury. Due to the injury I can not work right now. And it feels like now, more than ever, I’m running into more and more people asking me what I do.  I no longer have a good answer to that question; inside I’m always thinking “I don’t know what I do!” To some I still tell them I am a Special Education Teacher (let’s face it…that’ll always be a part of who I am) and I change the subject when they ask me what school I work at.  To others I say I help out at the bike shop (it is true I help out, but it’s not my job). Still to some I try my best to dodge the question (“Oh…I’m taking some time off” and then I bite my tongue when they respond with “must be nice”…if they only knew!). My brain injury is on a need to know basis, so to that random person I just met that is striking up a conversation, no I will not divulge my rattled brain to them.   This is a fairly new position I’ve found myself in. In my early teen years I worked at my cousin’s pet shop; then in my late teen years I worked the front desk at a hotel and then began waitressing at the hotels restaurant. In my early 20’s I worked at a preschool then I became a paraprofessional. In my late 20’s I became a special education teacher. I always had an answer (of course no one ever asked me at the age of 17 what I did for work…) but now, I’m left wondering “what do I do?”

Around the same time that I stumbled upon the quote I mentioned above, I also found a quote that said “whenever someone asks you what you do…answer with ‘whatever it takes’”…I think that will be my new response when confronted with that question…it’s the most honest answer there is.