Wanting to be Superman

It’s a very human thing to not want to accept that you have a disability. On some level we all believe that we’re Superman…capable of virtually anything until we’re told that we’re not. David Ross, my former speech teacher and fearless leader once brought in a woman who had suffered a stroke to speak with my leadership class. My big takeaway was that the world is not a kind place for people with disabilities. Looking back, she was absolutely correct. There are many clods, jerks, and idiots in this world who are incapable of understanding what having a disability is about.

For the disabled, society makes life no easier. There’s scores of government regulation and bureaucratic red tape that make even getting a base college education difficult, than government studies ponder “Why more disabled people are not college educated”? Most of us have to get up every morning and will ourselves to do something because it often feels like society would like to push us into a corner and play a forgetting game.

But there’s always our hope and there’s always our dreams…because we can dream of something greater than we have today. We have talents and abilities that regular people wish they had. The key is not to wallow in something that never was, and instead seek what could lie before you. There are days where this disability thing definitely sucks…but with support and good friends those days will get fewer and fewer. Aim high and remember that the only expectations that matter are those that you have for yourself.