Yesterday night, I watched the 8th episode of Season 1’s “Perception.” For those of you who haven’t heard of the show, it’s about a professor of neuroscience, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia as an undergraduate and who gets recruited by the FBI to help solve difficult and complex cases.
In this particular episode, what struck me was a scene where one of Dr. Pierce’s students, a football player experienced a subdural hematoma or a brain bleed that compromised his intellectual abilities. This student, Brian, had spent his life, since age 8, playing football and dreaming about it. But, then, at the end of the episode, he sustains yet another full impact injury that ends his football career. And, he tells the Professor he’s thinking of withdrawing and leaving school altogether.
Pierce encourages Brian to stay on by confessing that he (Pierce), too, had experienced a life changing ordeal. He had been locked in a hospital and had to leave his dreams of becoming a famous rock star and climbing Kilimanjaro, in Africa, behind.
Brian, the student who had to quit playing football, asked Pierce how he kept going.
Pierce said, “I found a new dream.”
***
That made me think of something that had happened in my own life.
Around the age of 8, my best friend and I both decided we would become child psychiatrists or psychologists, because we wanted to help others.
I really wanted to help children who were hurting, in pain, or were having a rough time.
***
I didn’t make it to medical school.
I didn’t even apply.
The reasons really aren’t important.
We could start with the fact that I’ve always struggled with learning in a classroom setting and the fact that I have problems with staying focused.
My desire to help others hasn’t changed.
But…,
I’ve found a new dream.
I can help and come alongside others through my writing
as well as speaking.
I’ve seen little glimmers of my impact there.
And, I can’t wait to do more.
WAM - Writing and Art in the Making 