You can’t know me by seeing me! I am inside…… I am a 19 year old woman just starting my adult life. Life has always been a struggle for me, just to survive, to thrive and to live. I have spent a life time proving myself to the world. I am still proving myself and this will never change. I graduated 2 years ago with a 4.0 grade average; this would not have been possible without a high end communication system. (I use an ECO.) It doesn’t matter how much you know if no one knows what you know. Without a communication system there would have been no grades and no proof that I am all that I am. I would have just sat in the back of the room looking cute. Cute only works for so long. Without communication, to the rest of the world I am just a woman in a wheelchair with a severe disability, who is dependent for everything. You can’t know me by seeing me! I am inside……
I am dependent for all physical tasks and care. Yes the basics can be provided without input from me but this is just sustaining life, not living it. With a great communication system I hold the reins in my life. I choose my life and the path I take every moment of every day. What I eat, when I eat, what I wear and when I wear it, the basic things all people hold the rights to. I can choose my life because I can express it. I have spent the past two years since graduation trying to achieve another extreme goal for me, my potential for independence. This too has been proven to be a struggle I must endure. Training staff to understand my level of emotional and intellectual independence is extremely difficult. I don’t think the world is ready for me, but I know I am ready for the world.
My future goals (that can only be achieved with modern technology – my ECO and computer) are basic for most people but grand for me. I plan to take courses to enhance my education in business and office management and go on to successfully run a business. I will continue to write and do public motivational speaking events. Art is my passion. I am and will be in future, a recognized accomplished artist. I will continue to grasp all of life that is in my reach – love, happiness, and fulfillment. I am not alone in this journey and others have paved part of the road before me, Stephen Hawking to name one….
What about Love? I too desire love from life and all that it can mean. How can someone love me if they don’t know me? How can they know me if they don’t understand me? To be able to communicate all my thoughts and feelings allows others to know all of me inside and out. As I desire an equal place in life, I also desire the same of love. I have met my special someone on Face Book. Yes, he is able-bodied not that it matters – but you thought it! Yes, he is my age! Though we met on Face Book which I can run on my ECO Communication system we also chat on MSN now. He has seen my picture as well through web cam, he knows my outside and he fell in love with my inside.
If everyone evaluated their life and considered living without communication they may start to understand how vitally important this is! My communication is the key that unlocks the many doors. The doors to my future and my life.