Perception and Perspective: Chapter Adulting By Melissa Ann Hardin

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Chapter Adulting… In August Year 2000 I hit my head. It’s called TBI when you get a concussion, still more when you fracture your skull. It’s still called that even if you slip on a greasy floor at the fast food place you work in, get mad at your co-workers cause they were out back smoking dope with the manager instead of helping you serve the last customer and close the drive thru for the night. It’s still called that especially when you crack your skull and your brain bounces inside your skull and causes you to lose long term memories at the age of 21. I had a concussion. I got up and handed the food out to the customer with the other hand not holding the back of my head. Yes I saw stars, no I didn’t lose consciousness. The customers yelled for the manager and co-workers, and I said I didn’t want to go to the hospital though I should have. I went home and went to sleep after throwing a temper tantrum, stomping my hat, kissing my boyfriend goodnight, and driving 30 minutes back home through dark, windy roads and calling my job quits. I dreamed nothing that I remember. The next day however when most of the swelling had gone away after an ice pack I could push my skull back and forth in the crack and feel it move beneath my fingers. Not a good sign but after all I was working three jobs and going to college full time on the last semester for my associates degree and I simply did not have time to worry about severe headaches from a skull fracture and long term memory loss. I blame this head injury for why I quit college, got married to my first husband and father of my children after only dating for four months. In retrospect at least. In truth we fell in love fast and I got kicked out my parents house cause I was a girl and I stayed out all night on basically our first date. It ended with a kiss and no more but that caused me to have to find my own apartment we both put all our savings into so we could have…um, privacy. So yes my children, that is the grand scale of my romance with your father. We met in August, married in December, got pregnant with our first child on our wedding night he and I were barely able to stay awake for and ta da we were parents nine months later.

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