A Resilient Child Grows To Have Grit

My mother, Myra P Metz was a major contributor to this.

 - Angela 

Back in 2004, after the craniotomy at Stanford, the neurosurgeon told me to now expect my usual brain development. Big smiles from me. I knew it wasn't usual. My  mother can tell you about my development. I'll just let you know I remember giving instructions on how to get home from my car seat.

"...you had a foot that was more dominant and one foot that turned and dragged. You had to have a special shoe." It goes on. "Also your eyes didn't focus well and one eye drifted. You also used to bang your head on the wall purposely which is kind of autistic-like."

"You were very early with using language and making the connection for abstract symbols and language. Your memory was like photo imagery."

"One thing you had very little of was patience.  You were always obsessed with how things worked and you used to dismantle things in the house to see how they worked. I think you were the one who took apart the window crank opener when you were two by climbing up on the dresser."

I remembered taking things apart.

I loved this show as a kid. He'd use parts of things.

I had a pink transistor radio like in the image. I would regularly take it apart.

When I was 18 I got an old car, a '68 Chrysler convertible. This thing was huge! You could probably seat a family of 5 in the front seat alone, although there were only three seatbelts. I'd take this thing apart and put it back together. I can rebuild a carburetor, but that's a lost skill now.

"There was another thing I just remembered from your early development. You never crawled." I'll have to check on  this issue, but never thought about affects.

"Most babies go through that stage where they get up on their knees and propel their torsos back and forth, but you never did that. You would lay on your tummy and it looked like you were swimming but never got anywhere. To get someplace you would roll your body. Then you would pull yourself up once you got to a spot where you could hold onto something. You took off walking at 12 months, but you never went through a crawling stage which I understand is very important in the development of other body and brain functions."

From what I remember, crawling is important for reading. I was an early reader. I must have got the skill to read across the page elsewhere. I'm thinking music gave me this skill. I could read music first. It's okay to get skills elsewhere.

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The description of the child sounds like brain compromise. Knowing I had that AVM, it probably bled in early childhood. Here is the first brain injury.

I did very well. I did extremely well! I started playing piano! I was a resilient child.

My Talent
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