As a disabled person, I’ve met some interesting people in my life. Some of my best friends are my attendants. I’ve also met people who are ashamed of their disability. This is not true for me. I think of my obstacles as challenges. Some of the challenges I face are people’s bad attitudes, technology problems and accessibility issues. I also sometimes feel misunderstood.
For example, one day I was sitting in a restaurant when the waitress said to my mom something like, “What would HE like?”
I thought “This bitch is blind.”
My mom said: “Talk to HER please.”
Last week I went to Kaiser with E when this guy came up to us and said, “Is this Mr. Such and Such?” I looked down at my outfit and thought I’m wearing pink next time!
Sometimes I feel depressed.
When I think about when my depression started, my mind goes to when I was in third grade. My aunt died of ovarian cancer that year and my dad himself got depressed. I had problems in school. We had an abusive teacher who yelled. He got fired when my parents came to school. The woman who was my kindergarten teacher took over. To top it off, I had an abusive attendant who had no disability awareness. She didn’t know how to deal with me. I cried a lot.
Sometimes what depressed me is that I couldn’t express myself in the way that I would have liked. I’ve gotten much better at communicating, but when I was younger I felt that people weren’t really listening to me.
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