But I had a really difficult time coping with the fact that other people did not see my ABILITIES and POTENTIAL. I felt like people saw my wheelchair and that was my most prominent defining attribute. For about a year I struggled with this, stuck on the fact that people saw me as DIS-abled without even knowing me at all. However, what I eventually learned was the importance of education. Most people, I believe, haven’t learned that people with disabilities are just differently capable. I do my best to not be offended by comments that seem ignorant, because I think that people are mostly trying to be helpful and caring, even if they don’t know how to be appropriate and un-offensive.
Only once in a while does my hot-head catch up with me. While at the grocery store a few months back, I was asked by a greeter: “What’s wrong with you?” I replied: “Nothing, what’s wrong with you?” Sometimes these comments drive me crazy, but I try to create an opportunity for education so that our society continues to become more inclusive, accepting and understanding. Maybe my efforts are futile, but I prefer to hope that we can create better living by educating one person at a time. (By the way, I felt too guilty about this grocery store comment that I continued to carry on a 10 minute conversation with the man about my life with a disability... “And no, thank you, I can carry my own bags to the car”).
My Day-to-Day Life
My life on the day-to-day has changed pretty little since my injury. Ironically, I was hurt at a time in my life where I was growing up and learning to be independent from my family anyways, so it was already destined to be a time of transition in my life. While my spinal cord injury changed the way that I learned to do things independently, it didn’t change the outcome. I live in my own apartment, I have an amazing career, and although I can’t hang my own curtains or do my taxes without crying and calling my mom at least once, I live a pretty independent and typical life for a girl in her mid-twenties.
Advice to Others
I am a Recreational Therapist and have two jobs that I love. I work in outdoor recreation at Daring Adventures and in neurorehabilitation at St. Joe’s Hospital. One thing that I am constantly telling my patients is that you don’t need to be able to do everything alone in order to be independent. To be aware of your limitations and ask for help when necessary (to be able to direct your own care) IS independence.
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