This weekend, I had the fantastic opportunity to deliver a presentation to the Campus Ambassador Conference. If you read the blog at all, you probably already know that I was really excited for this opportunity to share my thoughts and ideas on campus tours, how they relate to your school and you as an individual, to new tour guides. I was the keynote speaker for Saturday, to a group of tour guides from all over the country. I really enjoyed myself, over the course of the two day conference, and it was really nice to see all of the hard work that the Hokie Ambassadors put into making this conference a success really pay off. As I was getting homework done tonight I started reflecting on a particular moment that really made everything worthwhile for me. Not that I needed such a great moment to enjoy this conference, nonetheless, there was one.
One of the most important things my parents ever taught me after I became paralyzed was that, for the rest of my life, I would always need to make sure that people saw me before they saw my wheelchair. Anyone who knows me knows that this is something that is extremely important to me. It’s pretty frustrating when people look at me, see that I have a disability, and then automatically write me off in some way.
During my presentation to the tour guides, I told them about this founding staple my parents embedded in my mind when I was little, as I started to learn how to use my wheelchair and come to terms with my disability. After the presentation, one of the tour guides from another school came up to me and said that she started reflecting on our first meeting from the night before.
She said that for as long as she’s known me, which had only been about 18 hours, she never really did see my wheelchair. That when I walked into the restaurant where we were all sharing dinner the night before, she noticed me before she ever noticed my wheelchair. From the bright sea foam green sweater I was wearing to my personality to the way I introduced myself to her, she gravitated towards my personality. And wasn’t engulfed by the fact that I was sitting on top of two wheels.
Although I wasn’t the most confident in how my presentation went on Saturday, this interaction made it completely worth it for me. I really appreciated that she took the time after my presentation to come up to me and share her thoughts with me. It makes me feel like a lot of what I do is worthwhile. Again, not that I always need that external gratification, but I can’t lie and say that it’s not really nice to receive every once in a while.
