There was both good and bad in having an injury, the effects of which weren’t discernible to anyone else. I had done such a thorough job of disguising the signs of my brain damage, I had managed to fool the world. That disguise had given me a fellowship, a career, a few friends, and a relationship. The downside was that those closest to me often refused to acknowledge there was anything wrong. My head injury solicited zero sympathy, because no one could see the ways I struggled, the ways I’d changed. It was my word versus their observations.
