WHAT HELPS ME

At the beginning of last semester I met a lady in my math class who also has a brain injury, however she is a lot newer to life with a brain injury. When I met her I wanted a friendship to develop but I didn't want to force anything. Since we've been out of school, she has come over every week… Okay so we’ve only been out of school for two weeks, but that's beside the point lol. I just totally loved sharing our experiences of dealing with a brain injury with each other and talking about how we have handled different situations.  Thanks to her encouragement, I think I will start sharing the random things I do to help me with my memory. Even though I'm not sure if this is going to help anyone else I will never know until I do it!

WHAT HELPS ME--

I keep a journal on my computer of what I do throughout the day. As people make plans I put them in my planner and my jornal with a question mark at the end until it has actually happened (i.e. Jamie and I intended to meet at 9:15 today). My journal had” 9:15 meet w Jaimie?” until we met then I erased the ? so I know what I did on any specific day.  I also type great things I want to remember about our meeting. I try to do this for everything but of course there are many times that too many noteworthy events take place before I am able to record anything that day; however, after sleeping I wake up with all sorts of memories from the day before. Try it… Even if you don't have brain injury this might be something you find enjoyable as it's really fun to look back through the years at what has taken place.

So that's it for my first tip, I would love to hear any of yours!

I hope to have a great new year!

~ Kimi Burton

REVISED Accepting the Circumstances

REVISED Accepting the Circumstances

December 27, 2013 at 12:26pm

           
REVISED Accepting the Circumstances

Shortly after my accident I had to move from Mississippi to Colorado.  Mississippi was where I knew everyone and they knew my “track record”-- what my life was like before my accident and how the accident had effected me.  Although I was born in this new place, Colorado and spent my first few year of life there, I would like to think that I had really become my own individual in the years I spent in Mississippi (the majority of 3rd through 12th grade).  Although in many of my writings I mention that I had become a new person after my accident, I'm now realizing that deep down inside I am still person that God created me to be as a 3lb. 9oz. baby.  Since my accident I had been spending too much energy trying to achieve life with the caliber that I had before my accident.




I wasn't the nerdiest of nerds before my accident, although I enjoyed having homework groups at my house, going to math and science study groups and competitions, and hanging out with other people that I wouldn't consider myself “as smart as” in my spare time.  I was a cheerleader, but I definitely was not the best cheerleader and I also ran track and tried cross country (hahaha). Now, it has been over a decade since my accident and I thought that I had surely settled into a grown-up version of who I was before my accident-- with God and religion being more a part of my life now than I had ever imagined before my accident that couldn’t be the missing part of my life. I was /am still going to college and even though it was/is a lot harder for me to process information than it was before, I still love school so that couldn’t be the missing part of my life. A job… well I only had/have jobs during breaks from college so that couldn’t be the missing part of my life. What is it? There still was something else missing.


I had never realized that this was such an integral part of my life perhaps because it had been missing for so long. I met this guy who is nothing like the jock that I always dreamed of spending forever with (but then again I was no longer the peppy cheerleader that he dreamed of being either). First and for most he is a Christian. He loves his family, is a total nerd, and I am so excited to learn more!  Please pray that when we meet things go exactly as God has planned. BACK TO MY LETTER: I GOT A LITTLE PREACHY-- I may not be the sharpest crayon in the box, tool in the shed or tack in the drawer but by golly, I have been given unique qualities that make me a WONDERFUL creation of God.  And for anyone, I mean ANYONE that doesn’t feel like they are enough….just remember that YOU alone were enough for a man (Jesus Christ) to die for. Jesus Christ, would have died if you were the only person on Earth!  Wait—that is still preachy. Well I just guess I am a little preachy because Jesus Christ is my best friend and if talking about my best friend makes me seem a little preachy, then that's just who I am!
* This was totally a letter to a friend, but it turned into…something else! To God be the glory!


 So the best thing happened yesterday (Christmas Day). Not only did I have the best time with my immediate family. My step-mom’s family had me laughing so very hard as I was trying to get a serious answer out of her brothers. The question was "what is the difference between a geek and a nerd. Of course I asked her brothers because I'm pretty sure they are the adult version of whatever a “geek”/”nerd” happens to be (Remember, I absolutely love you Uncle Dan and Uncle Ron). Even though they just ended up arguing over who I should ask because it is the other brother who is a geek AND a nerd, I asked others and I was finally given an answer. The difference between a geek and a nerd is totally logical. A geek likes computers and all type of stuff and then a nerd is mainly interested in academic subjects. Why does that seem logical? Look around town and you will see vans with “Geek Squad” plastered on the side of them. The people driving them repair computers. This day and age (and perhaps this has always been true), a geek is someone who well knowledgeable about computers. This leaves the other type of person (academically smart like those totally into academic subjects and the like) as a nerd. Again, that bunny trail was completely off of what I was trying to get at when I was talking about meeting a guy and asking for prayer.


I sent what I had done at the time of this letter to Dustin to make sure that he didn't mind that I was sharing this with people. I woke up this morning with the text saying “…if you post that letter, I would suggest removing the part about praying our meeting goes well, as I consider this a nice dinner date with my girlfriend.” I am so totally excited and I wish everyone else could live inside my head and see how all the pieces of my life seem to be coming together. I know a relationship is not a sum total of the important things in one's life, but after being through what I have and realizing it's hard to find people who accept me for who I am, this is a pretty important thing in my life. It's more exciting because although we have talked on the phone and talked electronically for a little over a month, we haven't met.


This morning I woke up and wasn't totally sure that I was awake so I texted Dustin and asked him if we were seriously dating because we have never actually met in person. Although that's the way I roll, no one agrees (I'm afraid my parents might frown on this). He responded by saying that "if he says it he means it, and [he] absolutely likes me for who I am as that is what caught his attention.… Like me, [he] dance[s] to the beat of his own drum." He thought he inadvertently asked me out after getting to know me a few weeks ago. Although I can't pin point exactly when that was, I am completely excited because it’s clear now!!

Paying it Forward

Being able to help a friend with a class that I completely struggled through (with the help of a tutor) this past semester, is SUPER exciting! This friend is one I had just met at the beginning of last semester on the first day of classes. We became more acquainted as the semester went on--  all during class we sat next to each other and although we didn't have much time to talk during or after class, she was totally an angel to me by copying information for me that I was unable to among many other things. I had learned on the first day of classes before class that she also has a brain injury. Although she is a lot newer to handling life with a disability I am.

I was really stressed because I decided to take an intense Bible study in the middle of this semester and I knew with in the first few weeks of trying to work on my teachers license and take the Bible study that it was too much. However when I tried to back out of the Bible study a few lovely ladies in the study convinced me to stay in it. They assured me that they would help me catch up and to take as much time as I needed to away from the "Self Confrontation" Bible study for my schoolwork. One of the precious ladies from the Bible study came to my house and spent an entire Sunday after Church to help me get caught up because besides being in school. I started the Bible study 7 weeks after the class actually began. I was shown yet another time that keeping Christ as the center of your life and bringing all of your worries to God, even the ones "I'm sure He’s too busy for,” is just what he desires of his children. So much of what I have learned in this Bible study in the few weeks I have been, have, in so much use in the study is still in its beginning stages. 

My hope...

As I woke up this morning with the day’s plans already running through my head, I got notification of both of today’s plans being canceled due to sickness and amazing Colorado weather. I prayed, asking God to use me, somehow. Shortly after my prayer, I received a text from a friend who is new to “life with a brain injury” and is struggling. We got on the phone and talked-- our talk was wonderful where we laughed, we cried, and we discovered that there are many commonalities in brain injuries that are so very “unique to each person.” Our talk encouraged both her and I.

 

It is times like these, when I can honestly empathize with another brain injury victim (which I have not been able to do in a while), that I am thankful I have been through what I have and go through different struggles every single day and am able to remain hopeful. Hopeful not in being who I was or like I was before my brain injury, but hopeful in Jesus Christ! My hope is found in nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness!

Closer....

OH MY GOSH!!!!!! I just woke up crying about that octagon problem on my math final. I was so scared that I failed!!!! I am SO EXCITED!!!!

"[I] scored a 149/160 on the final and reclaimed 20 points for exam 3, so [my] grade for the class is B+" That is what I needed for my teacher's license.

Thank you SO MUCH!!! THANK MY TUTOR (now I need to learn about 2nd life), thank you Jamie for listening to... me whine, thank you Ma and Bid for believing in me ....I feel like I just won the Grammy's (in case you were wondering I DO know what that feels like...ssshhhh!) Thank you Scott for being my driver and thank you God--after sharing this verse with a friend before the test it stayed with me through the test

"Fear not, for I am with you;
Be not dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you,
Yes, I will help you,
I will uphold you with My righteous right hand."

I will now accept my Grammy...

 

I am now that much closer to being a licensed teacher!

I MISSED THE BOAT, BUT I'M ON GOD'S ARK!!!

I MISSED THE BOAT, BUT I'M ON GOD'S ARK!!!

 After hearing last night's sermon again today, God spoke to me in a completely different way although it was equally amazing!

Overall, in so many exciting ways I realized how much that I need to seek hard after God and the wisdom EVERYDAY! It seems like I may have missed the boat from a worldly perspective, however I am reminded once again that everything will happen as it's supposed to happen in God's time-- I just need to quit letting my mind slip back into the "worldly perspective" way of seeing things.

MISSED THE BOAT

MISSED THE BOAT

I woke up crying. Being the “spiritually “near-sighted” person that I am (and apparently always have been), I now see that I have missed-the-boat since way before my accident.

 Jason, a TALL friend from MS had a crush on me in high school but I was too head over heels for someone else to give Jason the time of day. There was even a period that his best friend and I lived in the same house and our paths crossed frequently, but I didn’t think anything. Jason is now happily married to an equally TALL lady and has a beautiful wife.

I know that God has the right man for me, it just seems like the good ones are gone. WAIT A MINUTE!!! There I go being spiritually near–sighted again—I can’t see the future and  I have NO IDEA who God will bring into my life.  I just need to calm down and and remember what was in Paul's letter

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. Romans 8:28-30

THANK YOU JESUS for bringing my near-sighted thoughts back to You --reminding me that You are far-sighted and can see the future! LIFE IS GOOD!