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A personal experience of disability | ||
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by David Richardson
I was born 5 weeks premature and I soon developed Cerebral Palsy. This meant that I have spent my life finding out what I can and can’t do – just like the rest of you. I can read, but I can’t drive! I can talk, but I can’t hear properly! I can ski, but I can’t run! I can surf the internet, but I can’t surf a wave! I can move, but I can’t stand! When I was small, I knew I was different! Especially when, aged four, I was given my hearing aids. I played catch up with the world. I wasn’t aware of having been a baby, having very few memories of early childhood. There is a silent space in my life, a space I enter when I’m in bed, in the shower, in the swimming pool or at the hairdresser. I have had to resign myself to missing out on things, some bad and some good. Frequently I let the world wash over me, I switch off, but that does not mean I don’t care. I am vulnerable because of my disabilities I have to take other people on trust, otherwise I would not be able to do all the wonderful and varied things that I have done. Sometimes I trust too much and suffer because of it. However, I would rather live dangerously than not live at all. I suppose the worst thing about being disabled is the amount of thinking and concentration that goes on before anything happens. This can lead to the feeling that one is a nuisance because the number of everyday activities that I can do for myself is restricted and so other people become involved. It would be so much easier, so much less effort, if I could just come and go without thinking, without all the special arrangements that have to be checked and rechecked. I'm not a VIP I’m not even an IP! I’m just a person who wants to go and do things. Yet, I treasure all the things that I have done because the effort was worth it and I’ll never take anything for granted. Plus, if I was not disabled my whole life and my personality would have been different. I am the only one who can cope with and understand my problems. If I’m honest, I wouldn’t want it any other way. The poet, Robert Frost, put it like this - “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and I, I took the one less travelled by, and that made all the difference” More news and articles from MRCT |
