[friendociate]

I explained my whole situation, but this thing timed-out and lost my whole diatribe before I could share it.

Maybe I'll feel like sharing the details again, but you'll probably learn em better if you ask me specifically anyway ... starting with a few questions you can read below:

... read their entry below ...

I was dead (briefly ... only a few minutes) and they brought me back and had me on life-support for days/weeks/months (most of this is just 'what they tell me actually happened'---I'm sure it is what actually happened, but I wasn't conscious of most of it).

In the years before, I was taking advanced courses; so--after I managed to make it back to school the next year (and doing some summer-school for the next few years)--I was able to graduate high-school with my class.

But--because of my 'lack of social mobility' (mostly 'no one depending on me to be there for them,' along with my parents' separation & divorce, and my inability to drive a car ... partially blind in one eye, I don't want to risk "putting others through the trouble I go through")--I was unable to persist through a degree-program at Oklahoma City University. I STARTED there, but ... you could say I dropped out, but I'd rather think of it as 'the school & me breaking-up'---OUR divorce

... read their entry below ...

Well--like many of my fellow survivors (both the few other teens-now-adults and the many adult victims)--I had to "learn EVERYTHING over again." I hear that there was no guarantee I'd even WAKE FROM THE COMA, let-alone do all the stuff I do now (walk, talk, feed myself, clean myself, change clothes, wash my laundry, wash my bed-sheets, watch TV/movies/plays, listen to music, go shopping, speak, write, etc.)

[sabtra]

Actually, I know nothing about this.
What happened? Did you go into a coma? Did you lose (and recover) any abilities? Any long-term issue?
As it was in teenage years, how was school affected by it? Did you manage to pursue your studies?

[Fergal]

Thanks for posting your AMA @friendociate.

Have you achieved or done anything since your injury, that you previously thought would not be possible for you?

[friendociate]

What happened? Did you go into a coma? Did you lose (and recover) any abilities? Any long-term issue?
As it was in teenage years, how was school affected by it? Did you manage to pursue your studies?

I was dead (briefly ... only a few minutes) and they brought me back and had me on life-support for days/weeks/months (most of this is just 'what they tell me actually happened'---I'm sure it is what actually happened, but I wasn't conscious of most of it).

In the years before, I was taking advanced courses; so--after I managed to make it back to school the next year (and doing some summer-school for the next few years)--I was able to graduate high-school with my class.

But--because of my 'lack of social mobility' (mostly 'no one depending on me to be there for them,' along with my parents' separation & divorce, and my inability to drive a car ... partially blind in one eye, I don't want to risk "putting others through the trouble I go through")--I was unable to persist through a degree-program at Oklahoma City University. I STARTED there, but ... you could say I dropped out, but I'd rather think of it as 'the school & me breaking-up'---OUR divorce

... Have you achieved or done anything since your injury, that you previously thought would not be possible for you?

Well--like many of my fellow survivors (both the few other teens-now-adults and the many adult victims)--I had to "learn EVERYTHING over again." I hear that there was no guarantee I'd even WAKE FROM THE COMA, let-alone do all the stuff I do now (walk, talk, feed myself, clean myself, change clothes, wash my laundry, wash my bed-sheets, watch TV/movies/plays, listen to music, go shopping, speak, write, etc.)

[sabtra]

I was unable to persist through a degree-program at Oklahoma City University. I STARTED there, but ... you could say I dropped out, but I'd rather think of it as 'the school & me breaking-up'---OUR divorce

I see.
Well, it's still great you graduated from high school. I guess those were different times, perhaps now universities are more accomodating, with plenty of online opportunities too.
What program did you choose, by the way? Would you like to try again if you had the opportunity, or are you just done with "your ex"?

[friendociate]

... perhaps now universities are more accomodating, with plenty of online opportunities too.
What program did you choose, by the way? Would you like to try again if you had the opportunity, or are you just done with "your ex"?

I started 'undeclared,' and probably should've stayed that way through my first two years (at least). The main reason I CHOSE Oklahoma City University (it's "a private school," unlike the State-supported schools like Oklahoma University, Oklahoma State University, the University of Central Oklahoma) was their 'HUGE' arts program (through which many of my music-teachers had gone).

But--during freshman orientation--I followed a cute girl into the Entertainment Business presentation, and figured I'd go into that.

Then after a couple years, it became clear that a) I wasn't going to develop the backstage dexterity that EB majors had to have & b) I was actually more into 'writing.' So I switched to an English Composition major.

Then--incidentally, as I was going to add on an Economics major--expenses became too hard to handle (so school & I "divorced"). I would only go 'back to school' if a guaranteed position-of-employment required it (& probably paid for it too).

Because--although they say that a college-degree is "crucial" to the foundation of a life-career in America--it's really just 'an extended, specialized, student-funded version of high-school.'

[Fergal]

How did what happened to you affect your belief in religion and God?

[friendociate]

How did what happened to you affect your belief in religion and God?

It required some 'shifting'---for instance, Heaven's not the end-goal! (because--if it were--I wouldn't have come back!)

Well, not exactly the end-goal---the end-goal is more like 'Heaven for EVERYBODY.' 'Heaven for just-me' is a lot like Hell ... Solitary Confinement ...

And God? God is everything---not 'some guy who OWNS everything' or 'some guy to whom you owe everything,' but "THE ACTUAL SUBSTANCE of everything" ... I hold an apple in my hand; that apple is God, that hand is God, the other hand is God, the air around those objects is God, the air everywhere else ... all the other apples ... all the other hands in the world ... all God.