That  somebody  jumped  out  or  something  and  I  completely whacked  my  entire  body  into  the  opposite  wall, hit  my  head,  bounced  off. A  concussion  is  defined  as a  traumatic  brain  injury  caused  by  a  bump, blow  or  jolt  to  the  head, or  by  a  hit  to  the  body  that  causes the  head  and  brain  to  move  rapidly  back  and  forth. Though  concussions  are  viewed  as  a  common  experience, it  does  involve  mild  brain  damage and  can  have  lasting  impacts  on  the  individual. My  name  is  Sarah  Hilbert. My  major  is  industrial  engineering, and  I'm  from  Pacer  City,  Georgia. The  events  my  concussion  was  sophomore  year, sometime  in  October  and  we  were  going to  a  haunted  house,  me  and  my  friends, and  haunted  houses  do  freak  me  out  a  little in  in  the  haunted  house,  we  went  through  this,  really, really  narrow  hallway  and  somebody  jumped  out  or something  and  I  completely  whacked my  entire  body  into  the  opposite  wall, hit  my  head  bounced  off. I  was  pretty  sure  I  already  had  a  concussion  from  that. But  then  I  hit  my  head  again  a  few  days  later  here  with my  friends  trying  to  reenact the  concussion  for  the  people  who  didn't  see  it. So  I  hit  my  head  at  that  time,  actually. I  hit  the  wall, hit  the  floor.  So  yeah. Because  of  the  heavily  social  atmosphere  of  college, many  students  like  Sarah  are  surrounded  by social  supports  with  which to  share  their  illness  narrative. In  the  aftermath  of  her  concussions, Sarah  relied  on  her  network of  friends  to  receive  social  support. Later,  she  was  able  to  rely  on  her  parents  and other  flexible  resources  to  gain  access  to  care. Originally,  I  wanted  to  go  to Sam's  just  because  it's  convenient  on  campus, but  I  had  a  really  difficult  time  getting  an  appointment. So  I'm  lucky  I  have a  car  on  campus  and  I'm  from  close  by. So  I  drove  back  to  my  hometown. I  went  to  the  urgent  care  there, which  was  also  nice  because  I  needed  to  pick  up my  insurance  card  actually  for  my  parents  anyways. So  I  went  to  the  urgent  care  there. It  had  probably  been  about  four  or  five  days since  I  initially  hit  my  head. And  then  I  talked  to  a  doctor  there. They  told  me  I  had  two  concussions, actually  compound  from  both  of  the  times  I  hit  my  head. Sarah's  story  illustrates  the  ways  in  which flexible  resources  allow  people to  receive  rapid  access  to  care. People  without  these  resources  more  often struggle  to  receive  care  in  a  timely  manner. Socially,  the  biggest  issue was  with  the  light  sensitivity  and  the  noise  sensitivity. I  wear  these  sunglasses  around  and  they  were  just normal  sunglasses  or  they  were  the  darkest  ones  I  owned. But  it  was  a  little  awkward  walking  around, I  wear  sunglasses,  head  phones.  It's  like  4:00  P.M. It's  not  that  sunny  out. It's  obviously  everyone  thinks  I'm  walking around  hungover  at  four  on  a  Wednesday. But  that  was  a  little  awkward. Felt  stigma  is  defined  as  feeling the  social  disgrace  of  having  a  discrediting  attribute. In  Sarah's  case,  this  was exemplified  by  feeling  awkward  walking around  in  sunglasses  and  having  people assume  that  she  was  hungover  at  4:00  P.M.  On  a  Wednesday. And  it  was  difficult  to  do  things  that  involve  screens. So  like  things  I  would  normally  do  socially, like  watch  a  movie  or  something  like that  was  difficult  with  that. A  biographical  fracture  defines  the  ways an  illness  or  injury  can  cause short  term  shifts  in  day  to  day  life. In  Sarah's  experience,  noise and  light  sensitivity  prevented  her  from participating  in  certain  events impacting  her  social  connectivity  for  a  short  period. A  biographical  fracture  entails interruptions  in  one  day's  to  day  life, but  to  a  lesser  extent  than  biographical  disruption, which  goes  beyond  one's  daily  life to  impact  one's  mindset  and  worldview. I  was  lucky  that  semester  that  I wasn't  in  any  project  based  classes. All  of  my  classes  were  mostly  assignment  and  test  based, so  it  was  easier  to  work  with my  individual  professors  to see  when  I  could  turn  things  in, what  I  could  do  on  paper  versus on  computer,  things  like  that. I  mostly  worked  one  on  one  with  my  individual  classes. The  sick  role  is  defined  as  a  sociological  concept describing  the  societal  expectations and  norms  associated  with  being  sick. This  is  related  to  Sarah's  illness  narrative as  support  from  her  professors  and classmates  was  able  to  alleviate  her  of some  of  the  stressors  associated  with  her  concussion. It  was  tough  not  being  able  to get  an  appointment  with  stamps, so  I  had  to  wait  until  I  could  find a  way  to  go  to  a  different  urgent  care. I  think  that  also the  stamps  website  is  confusing  personally. So  it's  difficult  to  know  what  kind of  appointment  am  I  trying  to  book, and  then  they're  busy  most  of  the  time. So  since  there's  not  really  access  to more  of  an  urgent  situation  with  stamps, that  was  Sarah  was  lucky  enough  to  have  access to  several  flexible  resources that  made  her  recovery  process  ideal. However,  many  students  do  not have  access  to  the  same  opportunities. Georgia  Tech  should  strive  to  make Sarah's  lucky  experience  a common  one  for  all  students  facing  injury.