Aspects of living with a disability part 21 - Equality: you only have a disability if you're tagged with one

  Evening everyone!

It's a late one tonight but hey you can't always have it your way!

When it comes to disability, you more often don't get things your way. And if I am being brutally honest right now, all I want to do is run away and play!!!

But, like most things in my life, sometimes the things dearest to you get taken away. As to why life goes this way, when it comes to a disability, no one really knows. But you know my theory on this is that there are some disabilities that ain't as difficult to deal with as mine on some days. All I want to do is have a bad hair day and scream the rest of the way without anyone else knowing that you are really having a bad day. But the thing is with a physical disability, you don't often get to choose what you do with the lower half of your body. Most of the time what you do is often governed by the people around you. We all have good and bad days but it is all about choosing how to focus and redirect the energy so you can turn it into positivity. And hopefully, have enough mobility to find your way through your disarray. 

One thing I will leave you with. If a disability does not define you, you define your disability. Whatever that may be, you are the only one that can know when the time is right to take someone's hand and go around that bend. Hoping that your battery will last long enough for you and your family to deal with what lies around that bend. Usually in most situations, when you have a disability, there is a way through. Although, the road to success is sometimes met with the mess. Nevertheless, I hope my needs will be met, and yours will be set in the way they were meant. 

Equality when it comes to a disability is a very difficult thing to achieve. As I mentioned in one of my previous blogs, a lot of people go towards segregation instead of integration. But, you occasionally meet special people that include people of all disabilities in most activities. But, we feel bad when sometimes we can't physically participate as much as we want to. So we are usually forced to sit on the sidelines and observe the world that surrounds us. Hopefully, my wheels will not rust but if they must, I hope my electronics don't bust. Because if they do, that's when you are usually tagged with one sad equal bag. And when that happens, I would prefer not to be stuck in the rain as this would send my mood down the drain,. There was once a time when I was younger when my father and I found ourselves asunder in moderate rain which fortunately for my hysteria but unfortunately for my father, who was made to train by pushing my chair home in the rain. Although this may not seem like a mammoth task, to most people, more often than not, you don't think of the time and physical energy that goes into relocating a non-functional electric wheelchair. And most people would say "it is only fair that you were put in that chair". And my reply would be, only if you could see the wear and tear emotionally. 

So where would I be if I were able to not be tagged with one? Well, one thing I would say to you, is that I find it difficult to imagine my life without one. So, at the very least, if I did not have what I have now, which is QS4 spastic quadriplegia, I would imagine myself with paraplegia of some description. Or, the other option is I am the square that does not fit a round hole. Which would be, like I am now where only one of my limbs works properly. 

Now, to imagine life with paraplegia, what would I choose the use of right now as I am writing this article. My legs or my arms? My answer would be my legs! Why you ask? Well, one thing is I have never been able to use them. And the second reason would be that hopefully, they would carry me to where I wish I could be without the need for a carer to accompany me. As I mentioned before, this is one of those things that I do not get to choose. So, carers do accompany me every single hour of every single day, 7 days a week with very little break. But, what that makes for, is a better person to great you and your family at my imaginary fish and chips store where my uncle Mick will hopefully not lay down the law on the beach's shores, where the water meets the sand and getting the sand and water in between your toes is on demand.  

Night night!

Thanks,

Stephanie :)