I'm not quite claiming that brain damage is a good thing in general, but here's how it seems to have been the one constant catalyst of my life for the last 20+ years.
Age 6: Spinal meningitis sends a fever through the roof exposing my brain to dangerously high temperatures.
- Developed interest in tap-dancing
- Developed interest in drumming
- Began harmonizing obsessively
- Began switching songs from minor to major and vice-versa
Age 12: Heat-sickness after all day at an air show sends fever sky-high again.
- Self taught to play drums in a couple days
- Self taught to play basic guitar
- Began clogging lessons, skipped to second year classes in two weeks
- Quit school
Age 17: Massive concussion erases entire week of memory, slows speech semi-permanently, slows reading.
- Improved unnaturally fast at guitar over the span of a month (noted by several friends)
- Took GED test. Passed with honors with no junior high or high school education
- Absorbed massive amounts of information regarding recordings technology. Started engineering records professionally.
Age 26: Punched in the face by a mugger. Mild concussion. Forgot names of room mates temporarily.
- Quit band and enrolled in acting school
- Moved to New England
- Started writing essays
- Took SAT, Almost perfect scores in writing and reading sections
- Enrolled in writing class at Vanderbilt U. Straight A's
So maybe it's all in my head. Or maybe it's all in my head!
