We had an amazing Labor Day weekend – we stayed at Isaak Walton Inn, an historic lodge near Glacier National Park that, to this day, lacks modern amenities such as internet and cell service. Not an easy luxury to find! While this did lend itself well to a peaceful and uninterrupted vacation experience, it also left me without one of the biggest crutches I’ve used since my brain injury: Google.
Brain injury survivors, by necessity, learn to make use of various tools to supplement our new challenges. Whether it’s to look up something I think I should know but must have forgotten, or it’s to learn something completely new, a tool that I have used to get through each and every day is the internet search on my phone.
Having access to the accumulated knowledge of the human race on my phone greatly reduces the daily impact of my capricious memory. And now I’ve come to realize just how important this tool has been in my day to day experience.
A Funny Thing about This Post
I think that learning to laugh at situations beyond my control helps me maintain a positive outlook and this is actually rather funny to me. I can only recall a tiny fraction of the assortment of specific search items that I wanted to look up while I was at Isaak Walton. When I thought about writing this post, I planned to share to the context around several times when this happened, alas, this is not how this post will turn out.
Again, most of us use Google (or a similar search tool) for looking up things we don’t know. For me, that has expanded to things I used to know, or things I think I should know – such as what a particular word means, or to find the word that I tried to say but couldn’t. I can’t recall any of those specifically, but I do remember that every time I reached for my phone… Google wasn’t there.
The Learning Process
It started with a painfully slow pace of realization about my new reality, the first day, I’d reach for my phone to look something up and see the circle icon spinning and spinning until a report of no internet connection was finally displayed. The second day, first thing in the morning I reached for my phone to look up something, and as I saw the spinning circle, I sighed, and put down my phone. Several times on that day it was the same. By our fourth day, I’d want to look something up and remember as I was reaching for my phone that it was no longer my go-to memory supplement tool.
The lodge was where we woke and had breakfast, but we spent our days exploring the local attractions. At the lodge, there was virtually no connectivity. Technically, they had what they termed as a “spotty” wi-fi that was available in the restaurant and lodge sitting room downstairs. Spotty wasn’t our experience. Our experience was more like the handful of times one of us said, “Oh hey! Internet is available!” while sitting down to breakfast or dinner. Then we’d jump in the Jeep and head out for adventure. Cell service in the mountains is rumored to exist, but like sasquatch, we didn’t see any.
When we came into civilized areas, phones would start beeping… all the missed notifications of text messages, emails, and social media activity. At our first restaurant stop, we’d start catching up with all we’d missed. We’d share, laugh, and talk about everything that was happening on our phones.
The Ironic Part of it All
I have phone service! Google is responding! Now I’ll look up… um, that thing I wanted to look up… wait, what was it? I’d ask Marcie, “What was it I wanted to look up back when we were in the mountains?” She’d look at me with a perplexed smile and say, “Not sure, when are you talking about?” I’d try to come up with details, but this isn’t a strong point with me anymore. All too often my response would be, “I don’t know, but we were talking about something when we were coming through that pass and could see the river… I can’t remember what, but I know I wanted to look something up…”
You can see where this leads… nowhere productive. I kept thinking to myself at those moments that I needed to start making notes about what I wanted to look up when I had service. Unfortunately, the reality is that I only remembered on two occasions to text myself a message to look something up when I had service again.
Is There a Takeaway?
I’m not sure. I try to conclude my posts with a takeaway of some sort, something of value to share with you, gentle reader. I don’t know if there is one aside from this… use the resources you have. Find the tools that work for you and implement them in your life. Whether we’re talking about Google on your phone, or the magnetic whiteboard on your refrigerator… if it works, use it. If sticky notes work for you, use them. In writing that last part, it occurs to me that a pack of sticky notes and a pen would have been quite valuable on my vacation – I think that I’ll buy some for future excursions.
It’s important that we find what does work to help us in our new adventures, and as the paragraph above points out, that we keep our minds open always to new possibilities. I have a collection of tools I’ve built over the last four years, but there are others out there I haven’t yet considered – whether from lack of exposure or from not seeing something in a particular way. The sticky notes, I know about these and I know how they’re used – but I don’t use them because I haven’t had a specific driver that showed me a situation where these could be of benefit. I now think that keeping a pack of sticky notes and a pen in the glove box of my vehicles could have tangible benefits.
Nutrition and mental training can help with some things, but not everything. Find tools that work for you, but keep your mind open to other ways to supplement your memory skills. And please take a moment to comment on this post to share with other readers key tools that work for you in reducing the impact of brain injury in your life. Thank you!
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