I am Christina Osheim.
I am an artist, entrepreneur, and TBI survivor.
My injury happened in 2003 when I was 20 while working grounds crew at St. Olaf College where I was doing my BA in Studio Art. It was over 20 years ago now, but it’s incredible how a freak accident can change your life so drastically. It was after this accident that I dropped a math class to take ceramics (I already knew how to throw) and found in clay a medium that could help me process my permanent brain loss and the trauma of early stage recovery.
Art has been my lifeline to making sense of the world and my place in it.
My journey since has been bumpy with great successes and some serious challenges. The origin story of NeuroMaps begins in 2021 when I moved to Brentwood, Maryland during the pandemic. I began working with a new therapist and soon discovered that the way my injury was handled by workers compensation, my college, and even my medical team was most certainly not up to par to 2021 standards, but I believe also not up to par with 2003 standards.
I learned I had been living with misinformation about my injury, that I was not normal, but disabled, and there was such a thing as long term traumatic brain injury. This new information shed light on many of the challenges I faced the previous 18 years. Wat had seemed personal shortcomings that I must conquer now fit into medically understood side effects. To say I was mad is not quite right. I was horrified that this happened to me and that as an artist and business owner it was imperative that I do what I can to spread awareness of TBI’s and their long term side effects, but to also advocate for my TBI family on what resources are available, my journey as an entrepreneur, and to create entrepreneurial grants so other TBI survivors could create fulfilling careers doing what they’re passionate about at their own pace. For me, running my own business Möbius Keramikk has been a great as I can work at my own pace (slowly) and break as I need to throughout the day to be able to function at my best capacity. I am so grateful for all my journey has taught me and cannot wait to see where NeuroMaps will go, the conversations we will have, and how many TBI survivors we can help along the way. Thank you for being a part of this journey with me!
