TLDR – ALS is a miserable disease but America has engaged in this crazy social media-fueled challenge to try and raise money and awareness for research and to find a cure for it. It’s been very successful, and here’s the story about how I got involved. :) Read more after the jump …
I’m not much of a television watcher but when I do get into a show I get obsessed. My current obsession is not new to the screen nor is it an exception to that rule, but I needed to give it some blog love anyways.
Thanks for listening today, guys. It’s hard to believe that it’s been six long years since I was sitting in your very seats!
I’m a paraplegic. A paraplegic is typically defined as a person who has SOME sort of impairment in TWO of their limbs; para meaning two. Impairment does exist in two of my limbs – my legs.
Being a person with a disability, many of my “able-bodied” friends generally assume – that I have a ton of other friends with disabilities. This hasn’t always been the case (and, really, is isn’t now). Sure, I have a few other friends who use wheelchairs. Just as I would ask my own friends, I treat them no differently as a person who is rolling next to me than a person who may be walking next to me. I work professionally in scenarios as a speaker or a counselor on an annual basis in situations with others with disabilities, and we see each other as often and on some other occasions throughout the year.
But…over the years, I’ve always found it odd – I never had a big friend base of others with disabilities. Was that a requirement for being a paraplegic? Absolutely not. But really, why didn’t I?
And then, when I really thought about it, I figured out why. Sometimes, being around others with disabilities made me uncomfortable.
Wow, right? As a person with a disability, how is that so? I use a wheelchair to get around, I’m always teaching others, especially my students, to be as accepting as humanly possible of others and their differences. But what I realized, during that reflection, was that it wasn’t any other disability that made me uncomfortable. It was, primarily, uncomfortable interactions around people with visual impairments.
If a new friend couldn’t walk – I’d be more than comfortable handling myself around them.
If a new friend couldn’t speak, was deaf, or hard of hearing – I’d more than comfortable signing to them or finding some other mutually agreeable form of communication; as long as they took it slow with me.
If a new friend couldn’t see or was vision impaired though? Anxious. Tense. Nervous. A little less sure of my ability to treat them as I would treat any other person (which, of course, is always my goal).
So, instead of sitting on my high horse and feeling sorry for myself, or even avoiding it, I’m going to do something to address it. Writing this into a blog post and posting it into the annals of the web probably isn’t the most popular decision, as I zero out those around me who may be blind or vision impaired. But it is the most accountable.
Consider this the beginning of my journey to be more conscious, just, accountable, and quite frankly: comfortable. I’m going to work on making HESONWHEELS a more visually-friendly and universally designed site, I’m going to work on interacting more with those with visual disabilities to kind of quell that fear and…I don’t know. I don’t know what else I’m going to do. But this is an issue for me and I want to solve it.
As a socially just person, I don’t think I should be able to consciously zero out a quality about a group of people that makes me uncomfortable. Because, after all, we are all just people, and if we want to interact with others on the same playing field we should be automatically given that opportunity. In fact, to me, it’s a right.
The story behind this one is crazy…just crazy.
TLDR – If you’re interested in a HESONWHEELS coffee mug, just fill out this form!
TLDR — Kind of reminds me of a certain little green wristband… Read more after the jump …
No, this isn’t a food blog.
There have been numerous topics that I’ve considered using to represent my more serious return to using my blog as a way to key the rest of the world into my life and everything that goes on it, but the story I have to share with you from earlier tonight easily takes the cake…or takes the ice cream, should I say? Bear with me. This story might not make you as happy as it makes me…but check it out.
Two weeks ago, I was packing and taping closed my final boxes at my home in Blacksburg. That townhouse has been soooo, so good to me over the years, and it’s been the home where I have so many memories. Not only were there a lot of memories…but there was a lot stuff! Realizing how much I had, I repeatedly had to ask for the help of those around me to make my move successful. There was no way I would be able to transport the things in my bedroom, my attic, my two bathrooms, kitchen, and living room on my own. It was going to take a team of people. That’s where community comes in.
Most people know that my truest representation of community in the New River Valley can be found in the time that I’ve spent at Harding Avenue Elementary School. I began working with those first grade students in Ms. Day’s and Ms. Earles’ class when I was a freshman; the year was 2008. In 2008, in that class was a student named (let’s call him) Jordan. I worked with Jordan for that year and our bond became quite exceptional. I would always see him in the lunch room in the years following becuase I would always continue to work with first grade as he worked his way through 2nd, 3rd, 4th, …
When Jordan was in 5th grade, his little brother, (let’s call him) Caymen became a first grader. That was this past fall. While I was there, Caymen and I quickly became even better friends than we had just based on the random contacts we had prior to me being a formal volunteer in his classroom.
Over the course of the next few months, the boys’ mom and I became friends on Facebook got to know each other better, too. Their mom also sponsors the senior class at the local high school, and also teaches social studies there.
Now that you have the context of how I’ve come to know this amazing family (+ their dad Adam), let me share main story. Stick with it, friends.
TL:DR…the likelihood of us meeting in that fortunate spot; a spot where not only was I elated to pay forward a wristband but I was ecstatic to see such wonderful caring, Ut Prosim minded action even as I’ve been sad about not being in Blacksburg anymore; would have been severely less if any of the above bullets weren’t true. Had I not volunteered at HAE, had I not had such an amazing best friend/brother in Billy, had dinner plans not been canceled and shifted so many times…I could go on.
There’s a reason one of my favorite movies is the Butterfly Effect. :)
For those of you who don’t know me…my name’s Justin.
This is my blog. It’s called he’s on wheels well…because I use wheels to get around. :) As you’ll see in the side bar of my blog (look to your left right now) my TEDx talk explains the viral inflammation that caused me to use a wheelchair for the foreseeable future. Now, don’t get me wrong – I am not “CONFINED” to a wheelchair. I simply use it to get around. Get in the same room with me and I’ll show you how. :)
I wanted to reintroduce myself because it feels like it has been an actual year since I’ve even opened the “New Blog Post” link on my favorites tool bar. And that really bugs me. Why? Because I see myself as a man of…quality.
I don’t like to half-do things. It really bugs me when people don’t put their all into something. Whatever the task is at hand, I firmly believe that you must do it with all of the energy that you CAN commit to it.
And it is for that reason…I haven’t blogged. I really haven’t made a quality, legitimate, interesting blog in months. It actually bothers me. It doesn’t quite keep me up at night but it does make me constantly feel like I need to get on top of things. Like I have this place on the internet that people may be looking toward to hear something from me and … silence.
This past semester, I would be working on my e-Portfolio, which is essentially a large deposit of everything I’ve learned and applied to myself and others over the past two years of my graduate program, and would feel as if I was just DYING to post something to he’s on wheels. ANYTHING would have made me happier than consistently seeing a relatively empty blog.
But…no.
I promised myself that I wouldn’t jump back onto the blog train until I could routinely sit down to commit honest and undistracted attention to sharing my thoughts with the world through my little space on the internet.
Well, my friends, we have arrived at that moment.
I have been doing a lot of thinking over the past few months and much of it was on private matters. All of these things (from my finding the perfect job to moving back in with my parents to working hard enough to pay the bills to really debating what my trajectory is going to be moving forward in life) were relatively private, but as I reach some decisions I feel much more comfortable with the idea of sharing them online.
I’m not the most private person ever, but sometimes….it’s important. Over the next few months, as I roll out some big, big news (i.e., who’s my employer!?) and changes, I wanted to have a place to be able to consistently share it.
This is it. This is actually it.
Stay tuned, folks. hesonwheels is back.
