December 2, 2019
As we are nearing the end of the year, I just want to reflect how 2019 was so good to me. It's still a long way to 2020 but let's throw the ball early. I have not been updating my blog for about a year and I have tons to tell what has been going on for these few months. I will start with February. I took a part of an advocacy workshop and that lasted until September. The workshop was about advocacy and have talked about human and civil rights for the disabled. I was shocked how much in depth everything was. The workshop was awesome and very informative. Parents, relatives teachers and people like myself took part.
First and foremost, for a person with my health history I have struggled and overcame obstacles life threw at me. This advocacy workshop has been introduced to me by one of my colleagues from my work and said that I would be interested. And I jumped on the opportunity and did it. I have learned a lot from the history of people with disabilities, many of these periods of life that were very unpleasant, often disgusting. To be honest caged animals were treated better than people with disabilities. That's how bad it really was.
My dream of being a mentor is really paying off. But now it's bigger and better, and with more opportunities. If you have a health condition, physical disability wether you were born with it or got it from injury and even an learning disability, everyone needs support. I have an supportive mother who loves me very much and had my back always and still does!
I have never realized how many people with disabilities there are in the world from actors to athletes and ordinary people like you and me. But yet, still with modernization and acceptance this demographic faces huge injustice. Why do we always have to judge the book by its covers? For exaple, I could turn away in disgust and leave that person in misery, because we don't want to do not have any idea how to help. I have quite few favorite people II admire that have disabilities. I will not go into a huge detail but I will take one or two and keep it short.
There is a race car driver from Poland, Bartek Ostolowski, and he has racing in his blood. Sadly he lost both of his arms in a horrific motorcycle accident. He had to relearn everything using only his feet. I like the guy, he is an inspiration to the whole community who are physically limited. Plus he paints to support his racing career.
There are a handful of actors to entrepreneurs with Down Syndrome to Richard Branson with dyslexia. Even Kim Peek, a man who sadly died from an heart attack in 2009 was born normal but sustained brain injury when he was born. Diagnosed as mentally challenged at birth, which doctors said he will never learn or function normally, he gained the power to remember dates and enormous amounts of facts. This just show that the human brain is an mystery and we still are trying to understand how it works.
I take this to heart, that nobody should be underestimated. Who knows, the person with intellectual disability maybe way smarter than you. Even a person with an physical disability can surprise you with their strength.
Everyone has a story to tell. Everyone has a unique life, some have it worse than others. Now this just shows, we can achieve our goals and dreams. Some of us need more support than others. Mine dream is still building my website and inspire others to chase their opportunities. Once you make it there is nothing that can stop you.