After waking from a coma with severe memory loss, the speaker lost their job, goals, and hobbies like tennis. They describe the unique grief of having no sense of self at all, not mourning who they were but the absence of knowing who they are. They frame it as an unwanted new beginning that became an opportunity for growth.
I woke up and they told me my name. And I just said, sure. It was odd. The scariest part wasn't that I forgot who I was, it's that I didn't feel like I missed him. I had been in a coma. I had a brain injury. The whole, the whole thing, it was very dramatic. I don't recommend it. But when I came back, everything I thought I was— it was my job, my goals, my identity, because I played a lot of tennis— it was, it was just gone. And nobody tells you this part. There's a moment where you realize you're not grieving for who you were. No. You're grieving that you don't know who you are. You know, and that fear, it feels, it feels like the end. It felt like it was done. But it's actually the beginning you didn't ask for. That's a good thing. So if you've ever felt lost, even without the crazy coma part, drop it in the comments. I do want to hear your story.
