Personal Narrative: Becoming A Person With A Physical Disability

On my way to the competition, as I always have, I inserted my earbuds into my ears and watched as our car passed hundreds of trees. Every gymnastics meet created such a sickening feeling in my stomach and made my head spin. My father asked if I felt alright. I lied and told him I felt fine. I jokingly said that I only imagined myself at the top of the podium; a first place medal around my neck. My parents tried to encourage me to accomplish this. Therefore, they promised a stuffed animal and an ice cream cone if I won. I made a half-smile because I doubted myself too much. If only I knew what would soon happen to permanently change myself as a gymnast. When I arrived, all of my teammates crowded around me and pulled me into the gymnasium. Because we were competing at our ‘home meet’, a gymnastics competition at my team’s gymnasium, I felt more comfortable. After warm-up, I went to vault. I did not feel pleased with my score, but

My teammate slipped after throwing me in the air, and by the time I was coming down it was too late. I hit the ground and the pain shot through my back. It took 6 doctors and 4 scans to discover that the impact had dislocated my hips and impaired my lower back. After months of physical therapy, the reality sunk in. My dreams of competing at the highest level of competitive cheerleading crushed, and my two minutes and thirty seconds of fame forever vanished.

The proposal by Manasi Deshpande entitled “A Call to Improve Campus Accessibility for the Mobility Impaired,” is a reasonable argument by this student regarding the need for improved campus accessibility. In summary, the introduction of this proposal emphasizes the challenges students with mobility impairments must face while attending classes on campus at the University of Texas at Austin. Ms. Deshpande includes quotes from her research field notes to support her argument in the next section of the proposal. Next, the proposal details the benefits for improving campus accessibility not only for students, but faculty as well. The student strengthens her argument by including statistics regarding the number of students that suffer temporary

The crackling sound of my nose as a cheerleader’s elbow snapped the bones in half, I dashed into the locker room. Now you are probably wondering how this happened. Finishing a tiring day of school, I went strolling into the gym ready to start practice. While setting up the mats my coaches walked in with a positive attitude and a speaker ready to run our routine, preparing us for the next competition. After an exhausting practice of hard work, sweat, and tears we had the option of staying after to work on our tumbling. Me being the person I am, constantly stressing, I decided to stay after. Little did I know this tragedy would happen. A cheerleader asked me to spot her on a tumbling pass and, of course, I said yes because I want everyone to

As I pulled into the rehabilitation center’s parking lot Monday afternoon I couldn't wait to get inside and feel the breeze of the air conditioning as I escaped from the 95 degree blazing hot weather outside. I was very anxious because I wasn’t sure how this interview would go, let alone if it would happen. I wasn't certain the physical therapist I was going to interview would have time to fit me in. I was up the night before trying to figure out what I wanted to learn from this interview and what kind of questions I would ask. I decided to focus my questions towards the physical therapist I have been shadowing to get to know more about him and his experiences with the job. So far through out my research I have been focusing on the physical therapists and their relationships with patients. I wanted my readers learn more about the person who is caring for these patients and what goes on that patients do not see.

It was the spring of 2001, the season that would mark the first game of my softball career. All twelve players showed up to the field, but the real question was, how many came to play ball? It was only best to expect the unexpected from this group of six year olds. The game started, and one player hit a roller towards the outfield. At this very moment the team of twelve became divided. This division separated the team players from the self-servers. My natural instinct to play as a teammate forecasted the kind of person I would soon become.

I am now retired after a 37 year career in human services with the state of Minnesota. I can bring a wealth of experience in coordinating services and programs with relevant stakeholders whether they pertain to individuals with disabilities or persons with healthy nutrition needs. Further, I feel this opportunity is a natural extension of my adult interest in providing needed service to underserved persons especially in rural

Unffortunally, theirs still a lot of improvements that must be made to better assist our future generation. There is growing evidence that people with disabilities have encounter many difficulties when seeking to travel from one point to another. An example of this is in the building of Hepner Hall were the elevator is very diffulct to find, theirs no signs pointing the away. Traveling through SDSU i been able to identify each of the following areas listed. An example of accessibility is the transposition service that

Dealing with this brain tumor has been very taxing the last couple of months. It started with frequent headaches accompanied by black spots in my vision. This absolutely freaked me out and I was at my doctor’s office within the week, he then referred me to a neurologist who ordered a CT scan for me. The tumor is the size of a Penney and I now have to see an oncologist. They have ordered me to have chemotherapy as well as radiation. The chemotherapy makes me sick and nauseas but the medical marijuana that the Doctor prescribed has helped with my appetite. I have been lucky enough to keep my hair although it is thinner unfortunately my eyebrows are gone and I now have to draw them in. I’m very blessed with an employer that is understanding and

The biggest obstacle that I have encountered in my ability to read and write are my learning disabilities. I’ve went through 18 years of my life before they were identified, and they have caused me so much frustration. I couldn’t understand why other kids could read out loud so well and I couldn’t. I couldn’t understand why it took me so long to read only a few pages of a book when other kids were at the end of the chapter. I had no idea why I couldn’t even sit down to write a single paper when other kids were doing their essays in a span of a couple hours.

The water has always been a safe haven for me, regardless if it was the ocean or a simple pool. It calmed me and put life into perspective. Growing up I had a minor learning disability that made reading and writing a major obstacle. No one really understood why it didn’t click for me. I was taking classes before school and having tutors in the summer, but it wasn’t enough. After a few years, I was molded to be the athlete of the family and as long as I tried with school, the grades weren’t a huge priority. I caught onto this and was extremely dissatisfied. I wanted to have the same standards as my brother and not just be something because it was a fall back. This label got to me and so I found comfort in a creature that I thought shared a false,

Since I was a young child, I have consistently dreamed of making a difference in my overall society and specializing in something where I am able to change the lives of others. During my grade school years, I was diagnosed as a 504 IEP student. This so called “disability” has formed me into the person I am today. I was able to look at the world differently, knowing that everyone and everything is not always perfect, and by going the extra mile while completing a task, will always get you somewhere. Dealing with my disability wasn’t always easy for me, I would often become more stressed than a typical student. Therefore I decided to participate in a daily yoga class to relieve stress and find comfort within. Although I eventually acquired skills

All throughout my elementary school years, I knew that there was something special about a student named Mat. He was always so friendly and excited to be at school and see all of his classmates. However, when someone would make him upset, he would not be able to contain himself. He would constantly over exaggerate, take things too personal, and blow many things out of proportion. Matt would sing and dance for everyone, even if it was not the necessary time to be doing these actions. I always wondered what made him act so much different than everyone else within my class. He continually looked up at the ceiling or sky when someone would talk to him. Matt considered everyone his best friend and

I was adopted by my Grandfather, David Crawford, when I was 11 years old. Along with me (is) my two younger brothers, Nick age 15 and Caleb age 14. Nick has autism and every August through October Saturdays for the past 5 year the whole family has participated in Challenger Baseball, an non profit organization set up in different towns around the United States that provides a positive environment for children with disability to play on a baseball team against other challenger teams. My grandfather actually set up the Bond County district after finding a love for it when Nick played in Edwardsville, Il. Aside from the players there are buddies that help each individual play, buddies help their player bat, run around the bases, play catch, and

The wheelchair assignment was meant for students to develop an awareness of the life of a person with a physical disability. Different barriers that I became more aware of during this excessive include physical and attitudinal. To complete this experience one had to sit in a wheelchair for at least two hours within a public setting. It was preferred that students left Convocation because numerous students, faculty, and staff within the building knew about this assignment. If a student stayed within Convocation then it is likely that they would not experience a wide variety of social reactions or barriers around the rest of the campus.