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Having a disability is very hard. Why it is hard is cause I cannot read; write very little.
I can read some but not a whole bunch. That was hard in my life. People didn’t understand
why you couldn’t read. If you were a grown up, why you can’t read? But to have a disability,
it was alright. I think to have a disability, it got me where I am today. To have a disability,
you have to feel, not okay, not okay, you have to feel perfect. We have to be perfect.
Not because we want to, because we have to. We have to be more perfect than you. I think
when I was younger, but today I have to be okay with it. I have to be okay with not reading.
I have to be okay with not spelling. My family never, ever put me down. My family never,
ever made me feel like I was stupid. They just didn’t. Other people who I met over
the years, who didn’t know nothing about disability, made me feel stupid. That is what
you never want to feel like. I think a lot of times when people kill themselves. I think it is because they
feel stupid. The probably never would be stupid, but they feel like they are stupid. Stupid
is not a word I use very often, because I don’t call anybody stupid. But if you feel
like you are stupid, you feel like all you want to do is go into a corner and hide forever.
My gift is
to talk to people who have a disability and tell them to be a butterfly. Here is my butterfly.
I was in a cocoon. I cannot get out. I wanted to get out, but I was in a cocoon. And this
was before I ever talked to anybody. That is why I am in a cocoon. I wanted to tell
everybody what I know, but I couldn’t. I wanted to so bad! Now I can. Now I am a butterfly.
It was overnight but it took a long time. Because before that I was just a follower.
I would follow you wherever you wanted to go. I would not lead you because I couldn’t
lead anybody. Now I have a lot of people I lead.