During my time in the military, I suffered several Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) and my world changed forever. I lost the majority of memories prior to my first TBI which includes my early adult life, almost all childhood memories, and family and friends. Because of this it became so important for me to preserve memories in a tangible form so that I do not lose sight of emotional experiences that impacted my life.
I was able to retain most structured or factual memories, the sad truth was that it was the emotional experiences that left. Sometimes I look back and wish that I would have forgot how to do addition rather than my time in high school. The other issue I run into is the lack of photographs of me growing up into my adult life. This time was prior to social media so there really was no push for the evolutionary selfie.
It is because of this that I turned to making pictures. Pictures are tangible memories. Pictures give me the opportunity to create a third party memory that can’t be destroyed so easy. In the blink of an eye everything I knew about myself changed. Today, I am able to look at the thousands of photographs that I have created and I get to relive experiences that would otherwise be completely forgotten.
I am proud of my service to my country and nothing will ever change that. I have dedicated my life to serving America, our community, and our Veterans. I just get to help our Nation’s Heroes create permanent memories so that they will one day have the ability to see themselves experiencing life again.