arancione

I was involved in a serious car accident in the spring of 1999 when my vehicle went off of a bridge and crashed into a creek. I woke up not knowing where i was, in the dark of night, and trapped inside my car underwater. I managed to bust out the windshield and get on dry land and overcome potentially drowning in what could have been my final resting place underneath the desolate Georgia highway I had travelled (there were no witnesses to the crash). While recouperating in the hospital, I befriended one of the nurses who was taking care of me. She asked many questions about myself in general, and the accident...some of which I couldn't recall. It didn't seem like a big deal until I returned home to my normal life. I saw people I didn't recognize. I read emails and letters about events I didn't remember. I ran into people who I didn't know who they were. My identity was in tact, but a good chunk of my memory was not. Since that time, some of those memories and feelings have come back to me...sometimes triggered by unusual or puzzling circumstances that can seem totally unrelated to the subject matter. A great deal of that memory is still a mystery, as I'm sure there are some chapters of my life that are lost for good. Some of it is known only by old letters, drawings, and photographs that I occasionally study in an attempt to somehow trigger some recollection. None of this seems to have any effect anymore on my quality of life (i have since graduated college and moved on to a successful professional career), but I do wonder sometimes as to exactly how much of my memory is lost, and what value the knowledge from those experiences could have in my current and future life. I just thought I would share my experience, and see if anyone else out there can relate.

Brian Matney, 26
Knoxville, TN