Fighting Chance blog 3

Stares and the Power of Kind Words:

Tuesday, 24 January 2012 23:43

While babies and toddlers can't help staring, when other people stare it can be hurtful. This is why it's important for people to be educated about disability and why staring can be harmful. As anyone who has a disability will know, growing up can be like riding a rollercoaster. Often you search far and wide for inspiration about how you can make your life more meaningful and achieve a sense of purpose and fulfillment. Furthermore, one of the most common and frequent hurdle that you face is the unkind stares of others. Despite attempts to ignore people’s stares, it is still a hard thing to endure. For me personally, I’ve narrowed the reason for these stares to be because I have to use a wheelchair for long distances. I have moderate cerebral palsy and I get tired. As I’ve previously mentioned my second work blog “The Prejudice of Words”, I sometimes feel “reluctantly” lucky that I can do the things I can. For example, I feel very lucky to have clear verbal speech. My heart also goes out to my friends who can’t speak, or whose speech is severely impaired but are just as equally smart and bright as me. I often think how daunting this must be for people who cannot speak, to be stared at by others. For me growing up, I didn’t attract as much “staring” attention when I use my walking frame. I always found this interesting, and thought it to be because the walking frame gives me a sense of normalcy, which is not there if I use my wheelchair. Personally, I strongly believe that no-one should be allowed to stare at me just because they think I’m “different” when I use my mobility equipment, but I only give exceptions to this rule to babies and toddlers because “stare helplessly” without meaning to cause any harm. So, I went on a quest to try and find something to help people deal with their staring woes, and recently I found just the thing. I was out shopping in Hornsby and walked into a shop called “ESQ Design” and saw a grey t-shirt with a cute little panda that read: “Don’t worry be happy, look at me I’m happy”. The message on this shirt is one which I think all people with disabilities should carry with them, and I believe it is one which could make a difference to people’s confidence and self-esteem. It certainly has for me. People might look at us, but let it be because we are happy with who we are.