This weekend’s tragic and sudden passing of Ohio State football player Kosta Karageorge shined a spotlight on concussions in sports and has helped to get people talking about this little -known topic. While doctors, psychologists and many others will be giving information about concussions to the media over the next few weeks, I felt this was an opportunity for me to share my experience with concussions and, more importantly, post-concussion syndrome.

I am a non-traditional student and I’m triple majoring in the communications department. I have lived a life that most people will never have an opportunity to. In that life, I’ve suffered more than an acceptable amount of concussions.

My first sports-related concussion came when I was 12 years old. I was knocked unconscious during a football game. Ten more times over my football playing years, I would be knocked unconscious with no memory of the events. However, those are only the concussions that I know of– two dozen more times I would have my “bell rung.”

After high school, I attempted a career as a professional wrestler. I was trained by Bruiser Brian Cox and wrestled in the Pacific Northwest for years. Numerous times I would take bad falls or chair shots that would cause me to become extremely disoriented or once again lose consciousness.

My doctor and I estimate that I have experienced more than 30 concussions. Today I carry a GPA above 3.8 and live a normal life, with a few minor glitches.

One major inconvenience that could be attributed to my concussions is my inability to stay awake while writing or listening to a lecture. Now you might say, “Oh, I fall asleep during boring lectures,” but for me it’s different. I become disoriented for no reason and fall asleep in conversations with people or just writing my name on a document. It is quite a funny sight to see, or so I am told.

The second major thing that happens to me is the fact that I forget large chunks of my days. Two-to-four-hour chunks are void of all details and any interactions. These happen once or twice a week.

The third major thing I have to deal with is reading and writing. For a journalist, this is probably the single most important thing. Every few days I lose track of a rule in grammar or I can’t do the most basic task, like sound a word out. Much of the time, I leave words out completely.

The fourth thing is the most frightening to those around me: the headaches and the voices that come with them. Now you hear the word voices and you think, “Oh, he’s crazy.”

My voices are much different than you might expect. I hear my voice dwelling on the same things repeatedly. For instance, if something makes me sad, I hear repeatedly for days those words, along with severe headaches.

To me, concussions are a part of my life. They have affected it in so many ways. Even if I could go back and protect my brain more, I probably wouldn’t have done much different.

I loved my experiences and all that came from those experiences. I now have some inconveniences, but I made a choice to do all those things. Maybe we didn’t know as much as we do now, but with all that information, we all need to step back and realize that stuff happens. It’s how you deal with the stuff that makes the difference.

I send my condolences to the Karageorge family. I hope Kosta found the peace that so many people who deal with the complications of concussions wish for.