Chrissy Bongiorni graduated from Gordon College in 2011. She experienced a traumatic brain injury in high school, and composed the essay for her Writing for the Media class to explain the challenges, victories, and aspirations of a student with TBI. In her words,

In January, Oregonian columnist Elizabeth Hovde sustained a TBI in a skiing accident on Mt. Hood. Her fall caused a coma that kept her in the hospital for two weeks, and then a rehabilitation center for another three weeks. She came home in February, but didn't write her next column until the end of May. In it, she explains waking up:

I remember the ridiculous. And I remember the day I came back.

I used to think all the nurses and doctors around me were "Star Wars" people that I had to escape. And I remember the morning I woke up in the hospital knowing that I was in fact in a hospital, not a rebel ship, and thinking the doctors, therapists and nurses were good people who were there to help me. I prayed to God the entire day for the suspicious, scary days to be over and for the "everyone is good" days to stay.

OPB Think Out Loud is inviting readers to write questions for Elizabeth Hovde and encouraging them to discuss the process of healing after a brain injury. 

Join the discussion:

http://opb.org/thinkoutloud/shows/elizabeth-hovde/

Read Eizabeth Hovde's first column since her brain injury:

http://www.oregonlive.com/hovde/index.ssf/2011/05/traumatic_brain_injury_back_fr.html