I relate to the mother in this personal story because I was my late life partner Margaret’s warrior for over 20 years. But I’m also almost seven years in to the battle to save my own life from hypoxic brain damage due to obstructive sleep apnea — I was in death’s foyer before I was diagnosed and treated — and I can confirm that tenacity of purpose and a clear mental image of what you want to create can produce amazing victories:
Growing up, I always had to fight to get people to listen to me.
The worst part about being disabled isn’t the pain or the struggle but how the world tries to shove you into a corner and pretend that you don’t exist. After all, what could you possibly have to contribute? You’re going to die soon, poor thing. Here’s a nice, quiet room and some morphine to ease the pain.
They don’t proactively hold you back, no, but they don’t expect you to succeed either. I’ve spent my entire life fighting against the weight of those expectations.
Like when university professors were flabbergasted when, on the first day, I asked my attendant to raise his hand, so I could answer the question that no one else could.
Or the vaguely constipated look on the face of a venture capitalist when I asked for $500,000 of startup capital for my first software company.
Read the whole thing at Copyblogger here.