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When you are disabled, it is easy to focus only on the negatives of your disability because we live in an inaccessible world and there are more negatives than positives, but the positives do exist. As a disabled person, I am not in denial of the negatives of my disability because it’s not healthy, but if you only focus on what is going wrong in your life, it would be sad and depressing to be disabled. Life is hard when you are disabled because we live in a world surrounded by inaccessibility and ableism, but disability changes you, and I am the person I am today because of my disability. Life with a disability isn’t only about the challenges, because good things can happen to disabled people, and we just tend to focus on only the bad things of a disability and forget about what is going good in our lives. Are there any positives to having a disability and struggling all the time? It can be hard to find the positives of a disability because life is more frustrating when you are disabled, but the positives do exist. In this post, I am going to talk about five positives of my disability to show you that not everything about a disability is bad.
It gave me the opportunity to go to Hawaii- When I was a child, I got to be a part of an organization called the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which is an organization that lets kids with incurable and life-threatening disabilities and illnesses pick three wishes, and one is granted. My top wish was to go to Hawaii because I have family there that I never get to see. My wish to go to Hawaii was granted, and I got the opportunity to have an all-expense paid trip to Hawaii for seven days. I don’t write about the details of my trip to Hawaii because the cut-off to be part of the organization is eighteen, and I don’t remember a lot of it, but if it wasn’t for my disability, I would have never had the opportunity to go to Hawaii. It would be expensive for all seven people in my family to fly to Hawaii, and if it weren’t for this opportunity, I would have never gotten to experience Hawaii, because now I have seizures when I fly and can’t get on a flight that long. This organization doesn’t take away the challenges of my disability, but it did give me an experience I will never forget and probably would have never done because even if I could fly, I could never afford a trip like that on my income. I may not remember that trip very well, but I will always remember the fun experience and generosity that this organization gave me and would recommend it to any child with a life-long incurable illness.
I have a good medical team- As a disabled person, I have more specialists than the average person because I have more body parts that don’t work properly than ones that do. If you have to see a lot of specialists, it can be helpful to have doctors who went into medicine to help people, because doctors who go into healthcare for the paycheck and have a horrible bedside manner are stressful. As a disabled person, I have gone to doctors, whom I am not a fan of, and my last neurologist had the worst bedside manner I have ever experienced, but I am fortunate that a vast majority of the specialists I need to see often are likable people, because not all disabled people have that experience. People sometimes think that all disabled people practically live at their doctor’s office because we associate disability with not being well, but that is not true for all disabled people, and I only see specialists when I am having issues, and I have to. Some disabled people go to the doctor more than I do, but the frequency of your doctor’s appointments depends on what disability you have, because some disabilities require more doctor’s visits. As a disabled person, I see more doctors than the average person, but most of the time, I don’t mind it because I mostly have positive experiences. Disabled people do not always have positive experiences in healthcare, and I am grateful that I have had mostly positive experiences.
I got the opportunity to go to camp- Most summer camps I have not been able to participate in because they are not accessible for people with physical disabilities, and I would have had to sit out of most of the activities, which wouldn’t be fun. I did get the opportunity to go to two camps called Camp Boggy Creek and Dream Oaks Camp, which are accessible camps for disabled people and their families. When I went to Dream Oaks camp, I went by myself for a week with a friend because it was only for disabled people, but Camp Boggy Creek was for disabled people and their families. At the time I went to these camps, I had fun, but my sisters do not have the fondest memories because the counselors can be a little overprotective and the activities can be a little childish for older children, and I would not enjoy them as an older adult. There are a lot of things that I think these camps could have done to make it more enjoyable for older kids, but I don’t have as many complaints about them as a non-disabled person would, because they were accessible, which is not the case for the vast majority of summer camps.
I met my friends because of my disability– If it wasn’t for my disability I would have different friends because I would have gone to the same private school as my sisters. My learning disability has made it difficult to go to private school because I would not have gotten the same services I needed to excel in school, and it was not an option for me. If I had gone to a private school, I would not have met the friends I have today and would have had different ones because we would have likely never crossed paths. A small private school has its advantages, but because I went to public school, I was able to meet my good friends, with whom I am still friends with today. If I went to a private school, I would likely still have close friends, but I would likely not have the opportunity to be friends with someone who has a different disability from me, and I think that being friends with other disabled people has made me the person I am today. I have learned so much from my disabled friends that I would have never learned if I hadn’t met them.
I have a lot of people in my life who can help me– When you have a physical disability, a lot of tasks that come easily for non-disabled people are more difficult and sometimes impossible for disabled people. Disabled people do not always have people in their lives who can help them do everyday tasks, and sometimes have to hire help, which I will have to do one day. I am fortunate to have a lot of non-disabled people in my life who do not have physical limitations who can help me do tasks such as unloading the dishwasher that are difficult with my physical disability, because not all disabled people have that. Life can be difficult when you have a physical disability because we live in an inaccessible world, but I am glad that I have more than enough people in my life who are always willing to help me without making me feel embarrassed for needing help. Non-disabled people do not always fully understand my disability, but they can help me do things I am not able to do and do them faster than I would ever be able to. I will never have to worry about being homeless because even if my parents died tomorrow and I had no place to live, I have plenty of sisters who would not let me live on the streets and would let me live with them temporarily until we found a better living situation.
Disability has a lot of negatives because it is frustrating that people think it’s okay to not be accessible, but not everything about a disability is negative. I have more physical challenges than most people, but because of my disability, I have had experiences I would not have had without my disability, and I do not see my disability as one big negative. My disability has more negatives than positives, and although I am not in denial of the negatives of my disability, I try not to focus on them because you will never see the good in your disability if you hyperfocus on the bad. I am the person I am today because of my disability, and even though life is hard sometimes, I choose to make the most of it and do not get upset about the things I cannot control. As a disabled person, I could be an angry, bitter person because everything in life is hard, but that is no way to live, and even though life is hard sometimes, you cannot change your disability, and all you can change is how you react to it. What are the positives of your disability? If you liked this post, please leave a comment below and share it with your friends.
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