Greetings

My name is Gabriel Alconcel and I am a traumatic brain injury survivor. I was downhill skating in San Pedro, California on August 8th, 2010 and I unfortunately fell. I was wearing a helmet, yet my head and brain sustained life threatening injuries. I survived and this is the story of my recovery back to my old self. I titled this blog, “Lector Et Emergo,” because I had seen it as the Facebook status of one of my friends. I knew it was Latin because I had taken Latin class at school but I was still curious and decided to Google it. It translated to, “I Struggle and Emerge.” I thought to myself, this Latin phrase fit my situation completely! And… I also thought it would be a pretty badass tattoo. Thanks Gabbi ;]

I am writing this blog because I was influenced by another traumatic brain injury survivor named Dorian Hargrove. He also has a blog (http://icantdrivefasterthan55.blogspot.com). I began to read his and thought to myself… this is pretty cool. I thought it would be an interesting read for my future self, my friends, fellow skaters, fellow survivors, my future kids and as a sort of therapy. Besides, what else am I supposed to do since I can’t be as physically active as I used to? I am going to write EVERYTHING about this low point in my life and my goal is to re-read this in a year and see how far I’ve come since that day.