Every person is a new door to a different world." This is a quote is from the movie Six Degrees of Separation, but when I read it I couldn’t help but think about how true it is and how it can define many experiences from my life.
Throughout my life I have had the chance to get to know many people in a variety of settings. Whether it is in school, girl scouts, teammates, therapeutic rec groups, summer camps, work, chance meetings, my friends have done more than help me get by in my life they have enriched my life and provided many opportunities to be like everybody else.
As I said in an earlier post, I attended many different elementary schools in my 5 years. Half way through my fourth grade year, I was fully mainstreamed into yet another school. In January I left the Battle Monument School, which was a full special education school for kids with a variety of disabilities and sent too Fullerton Elementary School in Parkville. This school was not in the neighborhood I lived in I did not know any of the kids or teachers there......As you can imagine I was very nervous and intimidated at the idea of going from a class of 10 kids to a class of 25, and not only was I the only fourth grader in a wheelchair, I was the only kid in the school in a wheelchair... The two things I was most unsure of were two things kids love the most, gym class and recess. There was no adapted playground equipment at this new school. I was not sure what I would be able to do, sit and watch was what I was expecting to do. I quickly figured out I would get to do more... I made friends, and even at the age of 9 they were not afraid to help me figure things out. Once the weather came and outside recess began it didn't take long to find things to do on the playground. I was friends with a set of twins, Tracy and Adrienne Senft who quickly figured out a way for me to play hopscotch with them. I would toss the rock, and they would hold on to my chair as they pushed/hopped the pattern if they stepped on a line I was out. I don't have many crystal clear memories of my elementary school years, however that is one that has always stuck in my mind and I think always will...
As life went on girl scouts provided many moments where new doors were opened by many friends. In seventh grade when I became a cadet I joined a new troop. It was run by a husband wife team Karen and Dave Modeski, who like my friends in elementary school were not afraid of the challenge of adapting activities so that could fit in and participate in activities like the rest of the girls. I went on every camping trip and did the same chores that were expected of everyone, no excuses accepted. This attitude quickly filtered down to my friends in the troop! I was treated the same and making things work "one way or another" was not the exception but the rule. In fact on one of our camping trips, we wanted to hike to the water... We quickly figured out that the trail that went to the water was in no way wheelchair friendly. There was no way the scooter I used at the time could navigate the boulders and the logs that covered the trail. In an effort to not have me miss the time with my friends, my mom with a little help from others walked me down the trail around the rocks and over the logs, until we got to the water. After this trip one of my friends and fellow scouts Lori Williams (a ninth grader at the time), decided that for her silver award (the highest award you can get as a cadet) she was going to create a wheelchair accessible trail to the water. She coordinated all that needed to be done and as a troop side by side with our dads at a father daughter trip we cleared the trail so that all scouts with and with and without wheelchairs could hike together.
I hope these two stories illustrate of how when people are accepting of one another, disabilities do not present problems, just a reasons to find creative solutions!
As you can probably guess I have had many more examples that I can and will share..... Please stay tuned for part two.
