Megan Mackenzie, a 27-year-old actress and college educator from New York City, suffered a traumatic brain injury at 17 when she fell off a stage and hit the back of her head. As a result, she had to relearn how to talk without a stutter and also struggled with short and long-term memory loss. Megan now keeps memos for every friend or family member in her notes app on her phone, detailing information such as their favorite color, birthday, and places they like to go. Her friends have nicknamed her Dory, from Finding Nemo, due to her memory loss, but she embraces it with the motto “just keep swimming.”
After the incident, Megan couldn’t articulate what happened and doesn’t remember the following months. Initially diagnosed with a mild concussion, she was later diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury when her symptoms persisted. Over the years, Megan underwent various therapies to relearn basic skills such as reading and talking. Despite her challenges, Megan has found ways to adapt to her new normal and even rediscovered her love for reading by speed reading and finishing entire books in just three hours.
Megan first started using her notes app to write things down as a way to keep track of important details and prevent herself from repeating stories to her friends. Each person in her life has a personalized notes app where she stores information about them, such as their birthdays, places they frequent, and any other random life bits that were important when she wrote them down. Megan’s boyfriend, Andrew, who is studying computer engineering, is very supportive of her and finds it charming when she retells the same stories multiple times. Together, they have found ways to navigate her memory loss and make their relationship work.
Despite being told that memorizing lines wouldn’t be an option after her brain injury, Megan found a way to overcome this challenge by using movement to help lock in the words. By incorporating physical gestures while learning lines, she has been able to memorize them successfully. She shares her story online to raise awareness about the quirks that come with a brain injury and to show that it doesn’t hold her back from living a fulfilling life. Megan’s journey of resilience and adaptation serves as an inspiration to others dealing with similar challenges, showing that finding a new normal is possible despite the obstacles faced.
