Living in a Bubble

Frisco, Texas. As privileged as we are to live in such a great community it often brings about tunnel vision when it comes to understanding the realities of our world.

Weekly Report 10/15/18 to 10/21/18

Sometimes we get so lost in the society that we live in that it is almost improbable to look outside of that spectrum. As fortunate as it is for us to live in such a privileged society, it is equally as unfortunate that it is so easy for us to confine ourselves to the so called “Frisco bubble”. Living in a privileged society tunnels vision and makes it very easy to confine ourselves into a sort of foggy bubble where the injustice outside of that bubble is invisible.

Every mentor visit gives me another reason to believe that this myopia truly does exist. The number of unfortunate cases that occur are innumerable from physical abuse cases to gunshot wounds to other traumatic brain injuries. This week’s mentor visit had a unique and unfortunate case of a patient who had gotten shot in their back. The nerves in the back control multiple different functions including the mobility of the legs. This specific patient was paraplegic after their injury indicated that they were paralyzed hip down.

It’s unfortunate how many things go unnoticed and how many people also refuse to seek care. Not only is the brain a organ that is susceptible to trauma, injuries, cancer, tumors, etc, but it is also susceptible to emotional pain. People tend to disregard this function in our body and don’t think to seek care for health after trauma. An injury like a gunshot wound isn’t only physically harmful, but mentally it also brings a lot of trauma that should indicate a need for seeking help such as psychotherapy. However, often people put a negative connotation with mental health help which should truly not be the case. Personally, I understand where people come from when they have this mentality because where I come from, people automatically assume that someone who seeks mental health help is “mad”. It is so important to seek help when it comes to any kind of traumatic event and nobody should be scared to seek that kind of help. People don’t necessarily need to be struggling with mental health to talk to a therapist because everyone goes through mild depressive moments and is always something that can be helped.

In addition, the next week look forwards to the original work. With a major issue being concussions and traumatic brain injury, it is vital that people are aware of the consequences of concussions. There is much potential with this project as it can apply to anyone that plays sports right here at my local high school. We look forward to ending this first semester with an ambitious project.