While walking to the Fitness Center for one of my sessions, I passed a pickup truck. The driver is getting ready to pull out of the parking lot. The truck smoothly shifted into 1st, 2nd, and then 3rd gear, and proceeds to drive out.
On occasion, I get asked to speak to groups about my experiences with Spastic Cerebral Palsy. In the fall of 2013, I stood in front of a group of health and fitness professionals and delivered a presentation about my fitness and walking program.
My walking program has been built upon collaboration. Collaboration is a dynamic, creative, and interconnected process. From the beginning, I have combined approaches from a wide range of health, medical, rehabilitation, and fitness disciplines.
Growing up I experienced cramps of such intensity in both of my legs that I would break into sobs because of the strength of the pain. In most cases, a hurting and weeping four-year-old does not have the expressiveness or coherence to say anything beyond “It hurts.”
For eight weeks in 2015, life as I knew it stopped. I saw every doctor possible to identify the cause of a mysterious and unknown pain in my legs. By the fifth medical visit, I was exhausted.
In honor of Memorial Day and my friend Stella Wetterhahn … Stella Was A World War II Veteran and a Nurse. She will be in my heart forever. Every Saturday, after my workout, I get on a bus and head Downtown to meet my friend Stella.
I came across a book called “Everybody Belongs: Changing Negative Attitudes toward Classmates with Disabilities.” by: Arthur Shapiro. The book was written several years ago and yet the themes from the book apply easily in 2019.
I am almost 44 years old. I work and own my own home. I earned more than one college degree. Does it sound like I am reciting a resume? Sometimes I feel that way in my interactions with the world.
Regardless of whether a person has a disability or not, we all want to connect. We all want to have a ‘place’ where we belong. When I refer to the concept of place, I do not mean the bricks and mortar of a building.
There are volumes of literature about the transition to adult life and self-determination for people with disabilities. An article entitled “Advice from Adults with Physical Disabilities on Fostering Self-Determination during the School Years” sparked some reflections about my own upbringing.
