This is me

I'm Matriccing

2012-02-11T01:05:00.000-08:00

This is my last year at school. Oh yes!

We all wait forever for this to happen. People are telling me that I must savour each moment of this year...right.

Right now, I'm just trying to adjust and survive the workload. Matric is no joke. Especially Matric history. Oh my goodness, it really does just get heavier as you go up in the grades. Seriously, no joke.

I have also started doing AP English as an extra subject - so I do eight now. I don't know how smart that is with the afore mentioned epic workload, but I like the stuff we do in the subject, so time will be found somewhere to fit it in.

Hopefully things will become a little more chilled sometime soon. If it does, you'll be the first to know.

:)

Merry Christmas!!

2011-12-26T12:01:00.000-08:00

It is the festive season!

Amazing things have happened this christmas. The way we celebrate christmas may be a little different to other people. We do presents in the morning - that's pretty much what everybody does - and then we organise the house for the afternoon because we celebrate christmas with the Terry family (the other family who founded The Chaeli Campaign) and they arrive at two-ish. Then we start the celebrations.

I think it's much better celebrating with the people you want to celebrate with. This way, everyone has an epic, awesome time. We have christmas lunch. The only thing is our lunch happens a little later than the general population. We have lunch at seven o'clock at night. It's very chilled. It's amazing!

But, being the people we are...we don't really do things slowly and we don't really do the whole relaxation-for-an-extended-period-of-time thing. So, true to this trait, a week before christmas we had the National Dancing Championships in Bloemfontein. We had to drive there because it's just way too expensive to fly a week before christmas (especially to Bloem as there are only two airlines that fly there). This is always interesting when travelling with four wheelchair users. Fun times. I honestly could have died of lack of surroundings.

The only thing I saw for twelve hours of my life were sheep and prickly pears. Do you have any idea how mind numbingly boring that is? I'm pretty sure I lost brain cells due to no activity...

Anyway, I digress. We only got to do our christmas presents on the Thursday before christmas. We decided that it was an awesome thing that I'm in a wheelchair because we get special parking - it's especially helpful during holiday seasons.

I think it's important to use what you have. I don't feel pity for myself and neither should anybody else. It's christmas and I believe christmas is about being with each other and creating amazing memories together.

Nationals, here we come!

2011-12-13T04:11:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow morning is going to begin very very early - 5am early. So excited! Can you see the sarcasm in my face?

We are going to Bloemfontein for our dancing national championships. It's going to be awesome...once we get there.

The team is going to be arriving on mass in 2 Kombi's, so we have to drive there. It means we have 12 hours in a car with 6 other people, which is fine for about a quarter of the journey. Then you start to get tired of one another and bored of the company. The worst thing somebody can ever do to fellow travellers is to open a packet of cheese flavoured Nik-Naks in the car! Trust me, I know what that is like. It's horrific. There is no way to get away from the smell of old socks on dirty feet!

That will not be happening in our car - I have put my metaphorical foot down!

The other thing is that when you travel to Bloemfontein by car, there is not the greatest scenery. In fact, there's very little scenery to speak of at all. The majority of the time you're driving on the same road that has NO life around it for kilometres at a time.

I guess we'll just have to keep ourselves occupied by doing funny things inside the Kombi and not rely on outside to keep our brains functioning.

Back home again

2011-12-01T08:41:00.000-08:00

So, we are now firmly back in South Africa. We had a day flight, which is okay, but personally I'm not a fan. I felt like I lost a whole day of my life. I kind of did because I spent it in a metal tube where I couldn't do anything other than watch movies - and I can tell you, you can only watch so many movies until you die of boredom. I was very close to dying of boredom.

When we got to Cape Town International Airport, we were welcomed by the family and SABC journalists. We had interviews with them, and then went home to collapse after a hectic day of doing nothing. I was so tired.

It's so good to be home. It's really busy though, interviews with newspapers, tv, radio, it's ongoing. As I told you, really busy. Really tiring. But it's still really fun and I'm having a good time.

Everybody was and is asking me if I'm glad to be back home and have life back to normal...

I tell them that it's awesome to be home but life is definitely not back to normal. At least not the normal we were used to before I won the prize. I guess we are just going to have to get used to a new normal.

That's what life is about. Getting used to new normals.

KidsRights & cheese

2011-11-26T07:29:00.000-08:00

Thursday was a great day.

We went to the KidsRights offices to meet the people there. Everyone that works at the foundation is incredible and you can feel the love. It's really nice to go into an environment like that. I loved it.

The majority of the day was taken up by being tourists - I think it was right that our last day in the Netherlands was done in this way. We went to Zaanse Schans. It's a kind of farm place. It's got a clog-making place, a cheese farm, lots of mills making different things and a whole bunch of things that we didn't get to see.

I had a lot of fun looking at traditional Dutch things - it was a rad experience.

We then had to take Thandiwe to the airport for her to go back to Zambia. It was really sad saying goodbye, but also not sad because I know that we will be meeting again soon.

Our last supper in Holland was incredible. We went to a place called 'Bazar Amsterdam'. It's kind of Moroccan place mixed with many different things. The vibe there was contagious - you just had to move to the music that was playing, your body made that decision for your brain. It was awesome.

Money, Peace & Parliament

2011-11-24T14:28:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was yet another crazy-busy day. It started really early because I was asked to open the stock exchange, then we went for an interview at the peace palace and finally we went to the parliament to meet Jetta Klijnsma. It was a ridiculously busy day, but it was awesome!

Opening the stock exchange was so exciting. It was the New York Stock Exchange/Euronext. We got there and met the men who kind of run the opening and closing of the stock exchange. They were amazing - so helpful and warm. The whole event was actually very fast and efficient. What happens is ten seconds before 9:00, they start a countdown; three seconds before 9:00, the people start applauding; and then at 9:00 we hit the really big gong. Then it's over.

When we had finished, we went back to the boardroom and they gave me presents. I was excited! I got a coin (a collector's item) that they only give to people who open the exchange and they gave me a 'tombstone' with a photo of the opening and a certificate for the opening.

The second thing on the agenda for the day was the peace palace. Generally, people are not allowed to go in, but we were. How amazing?

The interview was with a woman, who also has cerebral palsy and is in a wheelchair. It was incredible to speak to a person who understands exactly what I'm talking about. It's part of the EU's campaign called 'End Exclusion'. It's awesome to be a part of an initiative like this one. It was very interesting.

In a very busy day, the last stop was parliament. We went to meet a woman, Yetta Klijnsma, another person with cerebral palsy. You would think it would be more rare, but it turns out otherwise. Anyway, Yetta is a member of parliament and an ambassador for the Liliane Foundation - they support children with disabilities. The point of the meeting was to start a relationship with her because there may be an opportunity in the future to travel together.

As you can probably deduce, I was exhausted. But it was an incredible day and I loved every minute of it.

:)

And the winner is...

2011-11-22T02:49:00.000-08:00

ME!!

Yesterday was an incredible and amazing day.

It started very early, but it was totally worth it. The ceremony was held in The Hall of Knights in The Hague. It's the oldest building in Holland and it's only used about twice a year - when the Queen does the state of the union address and the international children's peace prize awards ceremony. Epic.

We had a couple of run-through's for the actual ceremony and the morning was largely taken up with interviews for TV, newspapers and websites. It was so much fun.

Then the ceremony started.

We (Thandiwe - 2007 winner, and myself) came in down the aisle. And the other guests of honour entered down the big stairs - clearly that wouldn't have worked for us. We made a plan. Every year the prize is handed over by a Nobel Peace Prize loureate. So this year the loureate was Mairead Maguire. She won in 1976 - she worked really hard to negotiate for peace in Northern Ireland. Mairead is an incredible woman.

There were awesome people who spoke. Someone who really made me think was Susan Bissell, from Unicef. She really spoke to me. Some interesting things are going to happen with Unicef and disability. So, wait and see.

When I had to get up and do my speech, it was a huge moment and my emotions got the better of me a little bit. I started crying (which made me stress because generally when I cry nobody can understand what I'm saying), but I controlled myself enough to be able to do my speech. I was very proud of myself for actually carrying on and doing my speech.

After I spoke, the Maastrichter Staar (it's a 100-strong male choir) sang the South African National Anthem. Once again, my emotions decided to leave me. It was an incredible moment that was quite overwhelming but it was very important that it happened the way it did.

The gala dinner afterwards was so much fun. I had my homies and it was all good. The food, the music, the people, everything was perfect!

Busy busy busy

2011-11-20T08:15:00.000-08:00

We did some very interesting, cool things yesterday.

The first couple of things weren't incredible but still exciting. For me, anyway. The first thing we did was going to the airport to fetch the other four founders of The Chaeli Campaign. I was excited.

Then we went back to their hotel. They asked in the car on the way there "Can Chaeli get into our hotel?". This is what we found:

So, the answer was clearly a no.

We went to lunch. It was nice and we could charge my chair, which was a bonus.

The really awesome thing of yesterday was that we went to the market. It was awesome! I have never walked for that long in my entire life. It's the longest market I've ever seen. Still amazing. They had clothes and food (fresh fruit and veggies) and a whole lot of other stuff.

After the amazing market, we went for supper at Cindy's house. It was really nice that we could be in a real home in Holland. We had to take the Tram to get there though. It was very cool that I was able to use the public transport with very minimal effort. So cool.

Cindy and her family were amazing. They invited us into their home and we immediately felt like family. We had the most incredible food. Thanks George!! Luka, their eldest son had planned an awesome game of BINGO! It's the best game ever invented. Here's how we were rolling:

More later.

:)

The antics continue...

2011-11-20T07:52:00.000-08:00

I know I said I would tell you guys more about my wheelchair saga, so here goes.

We got to Schipol airport, eventually got my wheelchair - we had to walk through basically the whole airport to get to where our luggage was but more importantly, where my wheelchair was. As you know, we were having a bit of battery power struggles. My wheelchair had a single very persistent bar of power (as oppose to the normally very happy 10 green bars).

When we arrived at our hotel, and tried to charge my chair, we quickly realised that our plugs and the plugs we brought were not going to work. Our universal travel adapter wasn't very universal. Still, we weren't really stressing because we figured we could just buy one anywhere. Oh, how wrong one can be.

In the whole of Amsterdam there was not a single South Africa to Europe plug. But, we had Ellen and Sjierly, from KidsRights running around trying to find a solution. They're very resourceful, and even they could not find a plug.

Keep in mind the persistent flashing red light.

I told the people around me that I was going to keep my wheelchair going by willpower. Willpower kept it going for nearly two whole days. Amazing!

Eventually we had to take the entire charger to an electrical shop place and change the plug from a South African plug to a Dutch plug. Interesting times.

After we changed it, we found restaurants that had a place where we could plug in and charge my wheelchair. The people looked at us funny when they heard our request. But generally people look at us funny anyway, so it was nothing new.

Everything went relatively normally after our little wheelchair drama, but what's life without drama?

:)

Airport antics

2011-11-19T14:32:00.000-08:00

Our flight was at 12:20, as you know, and we had to do something at the airport for about 3 hours. What to do?

We found ourselves in the Bidvest Premier Lounge - it was pretty epic and quite snazzy. It was nice. It had food and drinks for the people flying. It was really weird though because there are no people to help you, so you kind of feel like you're stealing everything. It's weird.

At 11:07 my mom started stressing that we were going to be late for the PAU (Passenger Assist Unit, for those of you who don't know), so we went then to the bathroom to change into 'Holland clothing'.

The funniest thing was that in the disabled bathroom, there is a hand-dryer. It's really badly placed, in terms of what we needed at the time. We had a LOT of stuff and being disabled adds more stuff to a lot of stuff. It keeps life interesting. But we put all our stuff (keep in mind you have to take ALL your belongings with you wherever you go at the airport) in the bathroom with us. So, we put everything underneath the hand-dryer. Probably not the best idea but there was nowhere else to put it. They work on motion sensors, which meant everytime mom did something with our bags, it went off. It was funny because mom got a fright everytime it happened, which was often. Funny.

Once we had reached the boarding gates, we realised that my wheelchair battery was basically dead. This is not good. When it's your form of moving it CANNOT die. But we're very good at finding solutions - we figured that we could just charge it when we got to Holland as we have international plugs. It didn't really work out that way.

We arrived in Holland yesterday at somewhere around 11. The guy in the plane who organises assisted passengers came to us and said "You have a big wheelchair, right?". We were like "No!" and he looked at us and very concerned he said "OK, we'll look again". Eventually, after riding through the whole of Schipol airport, we got my wheelchair AND it turned on and worked. We got excited.

I'll tell you guys more about it in my next entry. I'm going to bed now. Sleep well, world.

:)

Hup Hup Holland

2011-11-17T09:04:00.000-08:00

So, today started off very average - with a Maths exam. Fun times, I know. Then I had to go to the dentist for an emergency fixing of my retainer. It was attacking me from inside my mouth - we sorted it out though, so it's all good.

After my very average day, things got a lot more interesting and exciting. We had to start preparing to go to Holland. Holland, because the ceremony for the International Children's Peace Prize happens there and we have to go and see who the winner is...

Hold thumbs, people.

We going to have a really rad time - we are going to do all the touristy things as well as some other cool things that I'm not really sure about. Excited!

We've been getting ready for hours - I even had my suitcase ready yesterday, which is very unlike us. We're more 'pack five minutes before you have to leave' people. But, we'll roll with it.

Our flight is at 12:20 tonight/tomorrow morning. Whichever way you choose to say it. I don't know if I'm still going to be awake at that time, since I woke up at 6 to study for my maths paper, but we'll see. We're having a small partytjie at the airport. Because we can. And then we have to try and kill some time. Hmmmm....

There will be things to follow, many many posts, with many many photos. So, keep an eye or two on me.

:)

Exciting times

2011-11-16T09:29:00.001-08:00

It has been a very interesting couple of weeks. Firstly, I have been trying to prepare for end of year exams (not so exciting, I know, and also not the most successful). But the most interesting news of my LIFE is that about two weeks ago, we found out that I'm one of 5 finalists for the International Children's Peace Prize. How cool?

It's amazing. Being the researcher I am, onto the Internet I went. I found out who the other finalists are:

Liza in Palestine tries to promote peace through sport (woman's football) between Israeli and Palistinian young people. She fights for the rights and empowerment of Palestinian girls in a male-dominated society.

Malala in Pakistan fights for education of girls. This was banned under extreme Taliban rule. She went anyway.

Nicolay in Armenia organises workshops and discussions on human rights. He also writes a regular blog that addresses these issues.

Winfred stands up for abused children in her community. She documents cases of child abuse in schools and around the communities. She also set up a child's court, where kids can sort out their problems without adult interference.

How amazing are all of these fellow young people? We can all do something wherever we find ourselves. That's the message that all of the finalists (myself included) share with the world.

I hope to one day meet all of these people, and many more that are doing incredible work.

:)

Thinking inside the box

2011-10-16T08:38:00.000-07:00

The funniest thing happened.

It started off being pretty average. We'd just come back from Erin's matric prize giving at Kelvin Grove - the same night as the South Africa vs Australia cricket at Newlands. Chaos insues. All the roads to get to Kelvin Grove were closed (they had cars and dogs and everything) so we had to go all the way around. Eventually we got in, after an hour. But when we got there we had our own parking with our names on it. Felt very gangster, I won't lie. Haha.

In terms of our family, that was a pretty average start to an evening. Then it got interesting.

So, we had Erin's thing. then we had to get out of kelvin grove again. see, i told you, interesting. By the time we got out of traffic, we were starving. We argued a while about where to go, and which places would still be open. We decided that Spur would be a good bet. So, we missioned off to spur and turned out it wasnt such a good bet. We ended up going to McDonalds.

Now comes the funny part of our evening. Just like the comedy minute on 5fm. Just a little longer. We got to the drive-thru line and were wondering why there were so many cars taking so long. We figured it out. When we got to the order-box the penny dropped. Or maybe it didn't.

I don't understand the point of those boxes. i really don't. The only thing that comes of them is frustration. Sometimes laughter. A lot of laughter.

My dad was driving. So, naturally he had to order the food. Everything was fine until the woman inside the box got our order wrong. They should really try to get more capable people working in those boxes.

I'll paint the picture for you. My dad orders our food and the woman gets it wrong (we say it's ok because she can't hear us, bringing up again the question of the efficacy of the boxes). The order changed drastically from a meal costing R178 to costing R87. Clearly there was a bit of a problem. Dad was literally hanging out of the window speaking to a box. What made it funny though, was the fact that throughout the whole experience, the woman's only rebuttel was "two creme sodas?"

Everytime she said "two creme sodas?", we were dying of laughter in the back seat. It took 20 minutes to get passed the first hurdle of a McDonalds Drive-thru. We got our food and guess what....we didn't really get what we ordered. Although we did get a free Coke.

The way I see it, we have a story that will last forever and we laughed ourselves off a few calories before we ate. Leaving us just as thin as before.

Always a bright side.

Holidays. Oh yes!

2011-09-24T02:03:00.000-07:00

New school. New friends. New world.

Things have been ridiculously hectic the last four weeks. I eventually, after about three weeks, figured out the layout of my new school. Quite entertaining getting lost though. Most of the time.

I've never worked so hard at school in my entire life. I've never seen so much history work ever before. At Reddam we work properly.

The school needed to be a little more accessible than it was when I arrived. Ben (superman of Reddam) was making a plan. He was the only person who was understanding what was going on with the ramp-building process. We were all clueless. Tuesday this week the ramp was done. Then it made sense. Before that happened, the boys were really helpful in getting me up the stairs, especially in the rain (every Friday). The ramp is amazing and everyone is super excited about it - particularly the boys who don't have to lift me anymore. Thank you Ben!

We now have three days of job shadow to do for Life Orientation - I'm doing mine at The Chaeli Campaign *gasp*

After that we are on holiday! I'm excited. Holidays are only 10 days or something. It's still good though. A good break. Let's go.

New Beginnings.

2011-08-24T09:05:00.000-07:00

The last six months have been pretty trying for me. It started with my good friends at school, leaving, for various reasons.

So, I didn't really have anybody at school that I could be with. People kept telling me that I would find other friends...it didn't really turn out that way, but I've already spoken about that situation in my previous post. I won't bore you with retelling the story.

But, as I've said in my last post, I refused to go to school (sounds pretty melodramatic, but I couldn't bring myself to going back there). I was in a place where I felt I had no options - it was either Bergvliet or .....

As I look back at myself, the way I was feeling, I can tell you in all honesty that I was having pretty dark thoughts about life.

Don't worry, I am not thinking any dark thoughts anymore. I am now in a happy space.

The reason for this was that after my last emotional meltdown, my parents created options for me. For me, staying at Bergvliet wasn't a viable option. So we found another one.

My mom has connections all over the place because of her being CEO of The Chaeli Campaign - which is helpful when you're in desperate need. So, mom phoned Reddam House Constantia.

They called back in a matter of days. It was a Monday. They said that I had an interview and an entrance exam on Thursday. Naturally I started freaking out because I had three days to wrap my mind around this situation. I went on the Thursday, wrote the entrance exam (the whole three hours of it), and then we had an interview with the headmaster, Mr Dave Clark.

He is amazing. The way he interacts with students, and me, is a way that you are speaking as equals and you are the most important person in the room. He makes a you feel valued. Important.

After about a week Mr Clark called my parents to organise a meeting. They went and it turned out that I had passed the entrance exam (huge sigh of relief on my part) and they wanted me to go to the school as soon as possible as they starting the matric syllabus soon. It was a Thursday. Looks like Thursdays are good days for us.

Being the people we are, we don't do things slowly.

The Monday and Tuesday after that I went to Bergvliet to say goodbye and thank you to my teachers for being the most amazing people who were so supportive of me in everything. Especially in an environment and attitude where some people aren't very positive about inclusion. I appreciate what they did more than they could ever know.

After that emotional..ness.

Wednesday I went to Reddam to introduce myself to the staff. My nerves. The nervous laughter kind of gave me away. It was good though. Then Thursday I introduced myself to my grade. Epic nerves. Only the first minute until the microphone had feedback, that broke the tension a little bit. Ear drums too. I stayed there for the rest of that day, and started 'officially' on the Friday.

My first week at Reddam has been incredible. Everybody is so willing to help in any way. The thing that was so amazing to me was that Mr Clark said that they know there will be challenges, but we can work through them with creative solutions. It's been weird for me, though, because I'm used to fighting for things to happen, I'm used to everything being an impossible feat. It's not like that at all at Reddam. It's so refreshing, such a breath of much-needed fresh air.

It's Time

2011-08-02T03:06:00.000-07:00

As a disabled person in a mainstream high school, life is not easy or simple. There's always things that seem impossible to deal with, things that are not supposed to be so complicated. But, I guess that's the life of a young disabled person. I have been living with this kind of attitude for my whole high school career. It's hard to live with it everyday, and I can't anymore.

Three weeks ago the new term started. I couldn't go to school. I felt immensely unhappy. For two days I did nothing but cry and eat Nutella (it's my comfort food). I couldn't be in a place where I feel unwanted and unnecessary.

So, my mom suggested to me that I write an open letter to the school, sharing everything that I'm feeling. It took me 4 hours to write this letter - not because it was long enough to warrant that amount of time, but because it was really difficult to write all my feelings in one place. After I wrote it, i felt a weird sense of exhiliration, like it was finally time for people to actually listen to what I had to say and do something about it. I sent it to various people at the school, because it was addressed to everybody. I sent the letter on the 23rd of July. I'm still waiting for any kind of response or acknowledgement of receipt. I don't know how long I'm expected to wait...

Here is the open letter that I wrote to my school:

OPEN LETTER TO THE BERGVLIET HIGH SCHOOL COMMUNITY

Dear BHS management, staff and pupils

I don’t know how you are going to receive this letter but I think it’s important that I send it. Not just for myself but for any other people who might feel the same as I do.

Let me start off by saying thank you. I want to say thank you to all of the people at the school who help me with various things. I want to say thank you to all the boys who have helped me – and the boys who will be helping me – up and down stairs on a daily basis. I am always going to be grateful to you for being such gentlemen and being so helpful in a seemingly small way that is actually a huge act that allows me to exercise my right to an education. Thank you a million times. To all the people who have helped rally the troops on my behalf, it’s an awesome thing that you’ve all done. You’ve taken some of the stress of my disability away from me. Thank you.

Then, I want to say thank you to all my teachers. I don’t know if you realise what an impact you all have had on my life at school. I believe that you are the people who have made my school experience bearable. When I’m in your classrooms I feel like you have an understanding of my needs. It’s a great relief to ride into a classroom and not have to worry about what people may say because I know that you will make a plan. I don’t think you can ever truly understand how much I appreciate your attitude. You’re amazing!

But now I need to share with you the reason for this letter. Every day when I come to school I feel as if I am just one of the many that make up the school population, which is strange because you would think that I would feel like I’ve made a difference to the school, that I’ll be remembered for my contribution to the school, because the school is seemingly more inclusive and accepting. I don’t feel that way.

I started to wonder why it is that I don’t feel this pride for my school that many others feel. I think I’ve found some things that could explain it. I’m a pretty average student. I have an average academic performance. I don’t play any school sport because I’m unable to due to my disability. I feel like many achievements I have in my life outside of school-life are gone unnoticed by the school. I feel that a student that does not excel in sport at school or have great academic skills is made to feel as if they’re at the school to make up the numbers. I don’t believe there is much of a feeling of appreciation or acceptance of people who don’t add value in terms of “A’s” or sporting achievements.

I know that every person at Bergvliet High School has something valuable to offer the school. If we didn’t, why would you accept us in the first place? I feel that many have forgotten the importance of telling a person that they matter, that if we weren’t there the school would be less because of it, that the people up top care that we are there. I don’t know how you can expect us to deliver a high standard of everything if we are never told that we did a good job when we do deliver. It wears a person down.

I feel like an outsider. I feel like when people look at me they are wondering what I’m doing at this school. People don’t say the words. It’s in their eyes. It’s in the way they act when they’re around me. I guess I should be used to it, with my being in a wheelchair and all. I have a good amount of resilience for this kind of thing, but when you have to live with other people’s eyes staring in your direction all of the time, your stash of resilience starts to run out. Mine is running out fast. School is supposed to be a place where your troubles go away because you’re in a place where you feel you belong. My being in a wheelchair makes stairs a problem – it’s difficult for me to get into a classroom. I can’t have an independent education experience because I can’t get into classes independently. It’s not dignified for any person to have to be assisted to a place of learning. I’m sometimes seen as rude when people help me because they don’t hear me saying thank you. I speak softly and sometimes it takes a little time for me to get right in my chair again, after the boys have lifted me, and by this time, the boys have disappeared. I feel that people expect me to be nothing but grateful for being given a space in the school. Sometimes I feel that I’m not expected to want the same educational opportunities, or to act as any other 16 year old does.

I thought a school was supposed to nurture and cherish its students. I thought a school was supposed to grow and assist its students when they have struggles or weaknesses and help them to become better people. I thought a school was supposed to be a place of enrichment, warmth and acceptance. Instead, I’m experiencing our school to be a place where students are not seen as adding value unless it’s convenient and requires minimal effort. I feel that students who have certain problems are passed off to the counsellors to “fix”.

I’m sad that I feel this way because when I started at Bergvliet in Grade 8, I was so excited that I was at this school. I end up here, in Grade 11, unhappy. I feel, with all my heart that my high school experience didn’t have to be this way. I also believe that I’m not the only student who feels this way. I understand that I have a unique set of circumstances, but every person at Bergvliet has a unique set of circumstances, and it shouldn’t impact our being accepted. It should be embraced. People shouldn’t be made to feel like outsiders because of being different.

I think it’s awful that I have to live my life at school quietly: unseen and unheard. I’m not speaking about the rules and regulations of the school. I’m talking about the fact that I have to fight to be accepted, I have to fight to belong, and if I don’t have the strength to fight, I just have to deal with not belonging because it’s doesn’t seem important enough for the school to address. Maybe you don’t want to know how many people at Bergvliet High feel like outsiders or feel that they don’t belong, but I think it’s really wrong for anyone to have to be unhappy because of the insecurities of other people.

I hope that by writing this, people who are feeling the same as I do have a platform to raise their voices, to share their problems and sadness. I hope they can share their feelings openly where they will not be judged for the way they feel. I hope the school will receive it with an open mind to finding solutions to our problems. The school always says that we need to show the world how great Bergvliet is. I believe this will happen when Bergvliet becomes open to accepting criticism and acknowledges the fact that it has flaws and commits to working at making them strengths. Then Bergvliet will be a great place to be, a happy place to be, a place where each learner is accepted, a place where each person belongs.

With hope,
Chaeli Mycroft

Quite the long day...

2011-07-17T23:46:00.000-07:00

This weekend was quite hectic to say the least. On Thursday we had our last practice before the competition. Aahh.

Brandon also has an able-bodied partner, Lauren, and because they are championship dancers, they dance on the Friday. Brandon asked me to come and watch them to see how he does his thing at competitions. So we went. We arrived just in time to see their last two dances. I would have been in the dog box if we got there afterwards. At least it was a semi-final, so we would've seen him dance later if we had missed it. They came second...yay partner!

Chantelle, also a CSRC leg partner, was dancing on Friday. We got there in time to see her do Latin. She was amazing!

We left after Chantelle danced and that was at somewhere around 10. Not bad for a competition day.

Then Saturday came. We were told that we had to be there at 9 for registration. So, we get there at 9 and turns out we only going to be dancing at 4. What do you do for 7 hours? Basically, you sit, you wait, you eat...a lot. Most of the time we were on the brink of boredom, some of us were already off the cliff. Brandon only arrived at half past one. I think he's the smart one.

Our time to dance came, after a long wait, and it was incredible. The adrenaline started pumping before we even got to the floor. We walked out onto the floor and people started screaming (most of the noise was coming from our own people, but still).

In the middle of our Tango, I felt my eyelash lift off the middle of my eye (I was wearing false eyelashes. They were amazing). You know what I was thinking? If I lose an eyelash on the floor, I'm going to look ridiculous and I'll be winking at the judges and then I'll look even more ridiculous. Luckily, my eyelashes behaved themselves and stayed on my face. Go eyelash glue.

Our Quickstep was quite interesting. The floor that we danced on was very smooth...this is a problem for a wheelchair dancer because it's too smooth, the wheels don't have anything to grip on to. Now, the Quickstep is a fast dance and the turns are very quick. Hence the name. When we got to the far corner, we tried to turn but we ended up just drifting across the floor. Keegan knew that it was a mistake (he's our coach) but the audience just thought it was a really cool move that we came up with. It was a good time.

We had to wait until 10:30 for our prizegiving. That was a long wait. In the end, we won our section and we won all 5 dances. So, I'd say it was pretty well worth waiting for.

We left the competition at 11:30, only got home at 12:30 and only went to bed at 2:00. Brandon only left the competition at 3:00. Shame.

It was a long day to say the least. We should be training for competition survival!

Then we had Sunday practice. There were only 4 of us there (everybody else was too tired). It was not the most productive practice we've had. But, it was entertaining.

So, that was my weekend. Not a lot of sleeping was going on, certainly not by me anyway. But it was a really EPIC weekend!

Let's Go Dancing

2011-07-11T08:42:00.000-07:00

I have been dancing for almost seven years now. The majority of these years, my partner was Jesse (I've spoken about him in previous posts). In February, Jesse and my partnership fell apart and we 'broke up'. I won't go into the details

So, I had about 2 months of being partnerless. I needed a new partner.

Then The Chaeli Sports & Recreation Club (CSRC), was introduced to Delta Dance School. The CSRC now has eight wheelchair dancers who needed leg partners. That's where Delta came in - all the leg dancers come from Delta.

It's amazing how a couple of people have completely transformed our dancing component of the CSRC. The club now has a vibe. And I have a partner.

His name is Brandon. He is 16 and in Grade 10. Brandon is a Youth Championship dancer - the interesting thing is that he only did Ballroom. He hasn't done Latin-American in quite a while.

Now we have to learn how to work together and make what we do look pretty. Simple.

Our first competition is on Saturday...we are only going to compete in the Ballroom section (it's always good to start with what you know), just for the first competition, so we can get into it slowly.

We have to be there pretty early, which is normal, and we'll be there the entire day. Hopefully there'll be something entertaining (other than the dancing) that will happen to make the day more memorable.

Wish us luck...

Things happening

2011-07-05T04:20:00.000-07:00

This is a bit delayed but it is completely blog worthy, so here we go...

Every year the Chaeli Campaign has people riding in the Argus Cycle Tour to raise funds for the work we do through the campaign. For the more daring - and somewhat insane - people, we have the 'Double and Again'. It's exactly what it sounds like. The Argus Cycle Tour. Three times.

This year we only had 5 people crazy enough to do it. There is a tradition of not training for this that makes it all the more entertaining.

One of these people is Craig Sieben. Craig did his first Double and Again this year and was the only rider to make it up the final hill at Zewenwacht. He had a six year old mountain bike. Everybody else had road bikes.

Craig is leaving in 73 days, on a Walk4Wheels up Africa, in aid of The Chaeli Campaign as well as raising awareness of the abilities of disabled people. To find out more visit his blog at http://walk4wheels.tumblr.com/

But Craig knows some incredible people and has put me in contact with them - John McInroy (founder of the RedSockFriday Initiative), Sonja Kruse (travelled around South Africa experiencing the Ubuntu of fellow South Africans), Tithiya Sharma (travelling around the world finding '100 Heroes') and Adin van Ryneveld (living without spending any money).

These people, along with Craig, have shown me that there is a lot to be excited about in life and in others. It's awesome to see that there are still people that believe this.

We had an crazy-hectic day at Chaeli Cottage one Friday. We made headbands at the weekly craft workshop (Craig is quite a skilled headband creator).

It was hysterical...

There may be some pretty rad things to come. One thing I will tell you is that there are mountains involved, but I'll tell you more about them when things are a little more concrete.

Rolling with the Inspiration

2011-07-04T02:25:00.000-07:00

This last week has been quite bleak - weather wise. Not a lot you can do when the heavens are opening outside and it's too cold to do anything inside. So, why not write to you guys?

I'm on holiday now...until the 18th of July. It's amazing.

One thing I've been doing for the last three months is an article for Rolling Inspiration (a magazine aimed at wheelchair users). Rolling Inspiration is a bi-monthly magazine. I am one of two writers for a youth section in the magazine.

It's so exciting that I got the opportunity to write regularly. I appreciate it so much because it could open so many doors for me. My articles are about life as a differently abled person. It's quite nice to share my story with other differently abled people who are in similar situations to me.

This morning I woke up with that horrid feeling of "I've forgotten to do something important". I hate that feeling.

I found out later, when I got to Chaeli Cottage, that it was about my Rolling Inspiration article. I looked at previous emails from the editor and my deadline is TODAY! I had a little mini breakdown because I was still undecided about a topic and now I had to get it in by the end of the day.

But, the way I work is to only really work properly when under pressure. So, I got to writing. My article is finished now. I've emailed it. Now I just need photographs.

I hope what I wrote about is still the same as it was when I saw it so I can actually get a photo of it...

Yes, I am an Exchange Student

2011-06-30T03:18:00.000-07:00

A couple of entries ago, I told you guys about my application to be an exchange student. We heard at the beginning of the year that I got accepted. So, I'm the first disabled person in this district zone to apply and be accepted. How awesome?

It is quite the process, I must tell you. Especially, as a disabled person. The crucial thing is finding a host family. You need to understand that, in my case, it's not just a home for me. It's a home for a disabled person (which means it would have to be an accessible home), and it's also a home for another person (my caregiver, Olwethu, who works as a community worker at The Chaeli Campaign). In my opinion, it's Olwethu who would be the one people should be worried about.

But that's not the point.

When I got accepted we decided that London would be a good place to go. This is purely because of my being disabled, and the transport system is really good in terms of accessibility in London. It would suck if I go to a country for six weeks and I can't get around anywhere.

We have been trying to find a home for us for months now, and it's just not happening. We started getting a little despondent about the whole situation. Then, I got an email from Jana - from Newlands Rotary Club - saying that London wasn't really coming together, but how do we feel about Scotland?

We were super excited, but also a little confused. We had just got the idea of "London" into our brains and now we had to change our brains to "Scotland". If you look at it, they are both in the same general geographical area, so it's not such a big deal.

Yesterday I went to Home Affairs - watched a guy get angry (I swear, I thought he was going to jump over the counter and smack someone - and I got my Passport, after waiting for about an hour.

Note to all: If you're planning to go to Home Affairs, don't plan anything else for that day. All that will accomplish is you getting frustrated and you'll end up cancelling or postponing your meeting anyway.

So, now we just have to get a departure date and visas and then we are good to go...

Under the knife

2011-03-17T03:05:00.000-07:00

I have been having problems with my knees for almost two years now. I can't believe it has been that long.

It happened because of my disability - five years ago, I had surgery that would make walking easier, but now I am not walking and I have grown since then. So the desired outcome of that surgery worked for a while, but now it's having the opposite effect and it was pulling my kneecaps in all sorts of directions.

Just so you understand what I mean, my kneecaps were about four centimetres above where they're supposed to be. That's a problem.

About five months ago, my knees started complaining, as they should. We wanted to have them sorted out so they wouldn't be a misery for the rest of my life.

But here comes the problem... the orthopeadic surgoen who had done every one of my surgeries retired last year. Now we had to find a new person. It's quite a long story, but we found a good one. Dr Craig Hastings.

We went to him just over a month ago. He decided that a good plan of action would be to do one knee at a time and release the hamstring transfer (the surgery I had five years ago) and release the quads. In theory, this should reduce pressure on my kneecap and they should go back into its rightful home. Now, we just have to wait to see if theory becomes reality. It looks like it is.

I have to go back to him in about ten days to take off the bandages and see if it has worked. If it has, then we need to fix the other knee. Fun times.

I'll write more news when I get more news.

xxx

Patience is a virtue.

2011-03-04T09:58:00.000-08:00

I know that I haven't written an entry in a while...things have been so busy since my last blog entry.

I'm now in Grade 11. People tell you about how much more work it is. I didn't believe them. Listen, people, you should listen to those people when they tell you stuff like that so you can prepare properly.

Anyway, to get you up to speed on what's happening in my life.

A lot of interesting things are in the pipeline. I'll tell you guys about a couple of them.

Firstly, last year I applied for a service dog - quite the mission to find the right people, but once you find those people it's all good. So, I applied in September 2010 and in February this year, I had an interview with one of the trainers to see if my having a service dog is a good thing. I got accepted for the programme.

And now, we wait. They say it can take anywhere from 6 months to 2 years for them to find the right dog for me.

Exciting...

The second thing happening is that I applied to go on Rotary Exchange. The committee has to discuss it and then decide if I'm right for the programme.

If I get accepted, I'll be one of the few disabled people from South Africa to go on exchange. I guess it's a trend with disabled people: very few people have experiences well-worth having when there are so many disabled people out there. Quite ironic, I think.

And again, we wait...

I think that's one of the things that come with the territory of being differently abled. Playing the waiting game. We have to wait for everything. Opportunities, failures, other people, even ourselves.

But I think the best thing I've gained from my disability is most probably...patience. I have to have patience with myself because, let's face it, stuff takes a little longer. I have to have patience with other people, because they take time to get on your side.

I hope that you all have patience with yourselves and each other. And as the saying goes, "patience is a virtue", so make it one of your own.

Tattoo time

2010-09-04T08:38:00.000-07:00

It was my sixteenth birthday last Monday (30th August). My birthday present from my parents was a tattoo.

I have been thinking about what tattoo I would get - if I ever got one - and I decided that I would get the chinese symbol for resilience. I thought it would be a good one considering the things I have had to overcome in my life.

On Monday morning, I was woken by the singing of 'happy birthday to you'. Now, you must know that for two weeks before my birthday, people were being very sneaky and told me my birthday present was awesome. When I was given a box filled with underwear...I was a little disappointed. Then, they gave me a card that said I had a voucher for one tattoo at MOB Inc. I didn't believe them at first.

I had an appointment for today at 2. Being true to family tradition, we were late. I was stressing.

I was a little nervous but more excited about getting my tattoo. Daniel, the tattoo artist, was still busy working on his previous client. I was fine, nerve wise, until I heard the noise of the needles.

My sister had to hold me in my wheelchair. To stop spasms from changing the wanted outcome.

Daniel was amazing. I was stressed - I think you can understand why. He was so chilled and made the whole experience a lot more enjoyable than I was expecting.

How can someone pinch the marmalade?

2010-06-27T03:46:00.000-07:00

We are all now safely back home. It was a very interesting four days at the festival.

As always, there was drama. There is always going to be drama when you go away with more than one person. We were a group of thirty eight. So, you can imagine the drama.

We performed for two days with two shows per day. Our first show was not so good. We had a little bit of backstage tension. But every production has one bad show. That was our's. The rest were awesome.

Our last performance was a charity show at the correctional services. We were a bit tense about it. We were nervous because we had never been in an environment like that. We did our show outside in the exercise quad. It was our best performance.

We went to Sundowners. This is where shows have the opportunity to give the people a preview. Each show has six minutes to persuade the crowd. We had a good six minutes. We stayed to watch a few other previews - some were quite strange.

Everyone stayed in the university residences that were turned into hotels. Each res/hotel has a few wardens who are there to help the guests. We were friends with all of them.

Some funny things happened in those four days. At breakfast on the first day there was no marmalade. The people swore that they had put it out before the guests arrived. hmmm...

We had to rearrange our room a little bit so I could get in easier. The first time, though, we had to take my footrests off my wheelchair to get around the door and the bed. We then had a rehearsal, so off we went. without the footrests. Now, Jesse usually uses it as well. That day was no different. He quickly realised the error of his ways when he nearly landed on his face.

Jed, a cast member, slipped in the bathroom and dislocated his shoulder. He was rushed to hospital so they could relocate it.

I have decided to become a Grahamstown Festival regular. You will see me there until it is no more.

On the road again.

2010-06-20T03:02:00.000-07:00

For the last six months, our dance school has been rehearsing for a play called 'Soar Like An Eagle'. The play is about how dancing can change a person's life and the journey towards that point of change.

We've performed at various venues, namely Rocklands Civic Centre in Mitchell's Plain and Milnerton Playhouse.

Our next stop. Grahamstown Festival. We're all very excited because we have never performed at a festival before. Our group is leaving at different times to make it easier and cheaper. We have to drive there because it's a mission to fly to Port Elizabeth and then drive to Grahamstown anyway. Ten hours of car here we come.

I think everybody can understand that there is only so much a person can do for ten hours in a car. Eat, sleep, read for a little bit, listen to music, and eat again. For us, that would cover about two hours. What about the other eight?

Things I have learned from previous trips:
1. Always have a good amount of food - mostly sweet stuff. For empty moments when you have nothing else to do.
2. It's all about layering. Wear multiple layers of clothing with varying degrees of warmth. This is to avoid being caught unawares at a robot next to a group of bikers. True story.
3. Most importantly, MOVE AROUND. You don't want to get out of the car, not be able to use your limbs, fall on your face, and die of embarrassment. In spite of your humiliation, this is very funny for others around you.

I hope these are helpful for your trips to come. I hope they come in handy to avoid future catastrophes.

Freedom from the tarmac

2010-05-02T02:47:00.000-07:00

I've been doing wheelchair dancing for almost four years now. It's really rad to be able to do things that people don't expect me to be capable of.

Every year, on Freedom Day, we do a demonstration at a disability awareness walk. It is always really early in the morning because we have to dance before the people start their walk for awareness. My partner, Jesse, and I are not what you would call 'a morning person'. We have perfected the art of faking being awake.

You must know, when we are dancing, there is bound to be some sort of catastrophe.

Just so you understand the circumstances that we were dancing under, the walk starts outside Vangate Mall. That means that we had to dance outside on the tarmac. Don't worry, that's certainly not the worst thing we've been required to dance on. The worst by far, was dancing outside the parliament buildings on, wait for it, cobblestones. I promise you, that was a unique experience if I ever had one.

But to get back to the story, last year, at the walk, Jesse forgot to check the back wheel (that's the one that keeps the chair stable) and well, I went over backwards. very close to hitting the floor. Luckily, Jesse had fast reflexes that day.

So, this year, to keep up the tradition, we had yet another extravagant failure that nobody noticed because they thought it was all part of the show.

It started off with a power failure. Lucky for us, the police band was there and we made a plan. I have to say, I've never done that before. Then, half-way through the demonstration, power was restored. The first song that actually played was an awesome tango. Then....Quickstep.

Now, quickstep in general is a pretty fast dance to begin with. But now, Jesse is a bit of a showoff. I knew when he looked at Danielle (she's another dancer who dances with Mukkie, he's in a wheelchair as well) that it was not going to end well.

Off we went. When we had gone around the floor once, Jesse tripped. Hold the gasp. He tripped over a rock, smaller than a pea. When going at speed, the smallest thing can create the most disastrous situation.

Jesse fell to his knees, with very little grace, I have to say. What made things worse was that he was holding my arms, which meant that I was on two wheels once again. He realised that he would be in big trouble if I had landed on my head.

He kind of did a sort of mooncrawl, stumbled a little, stood up and pretended that nothing had happened. Amidst all of this hysteria, there were a couple of choice words in there. I'm forever hopeful that people didn't hear us. When we walked off the floor, we saw the damage. Jesse's pants are now holy....so is his knee.

I don't think Jesse understands how much I trust him. He thinks I don't trust him because I won't let him kick over my head. I trust him completely, his hamstrings not so much.

It's nice to have someone who you know will destroy himself in order to save you. I hope everyone has a person like that in their lives who they trust entirely.

There Is Hope

2010-04-07T08:11:00.000-07:00

I recently watched a video on youtube called 'Lost Generation'. It was entered in a competition and came second...I think. The video is of a poem written by a 20 year old. I would give almost anything to think like she does. It is a kind of palindrome, but it reads the opposite when you read it backwards. The poem starts with 'lost generation, but ends with 'there is hope'.

It is incredible to listen to. When it started I was a little bit confused as to why everyone thought it was so amazing because it was so pessimistic. Then she started reading the poem backwards...I could not believe that it made so much sense.

It made me think about the way different people see the world and where we are going with it. I realised that your view of life is what determines how you act and respond to certain situations.

Optimism is the key to success. If we are negative, it starts a turn of events that become a downward spiral that is hard to overcome. So, negativity is a waste of time and energy. Positivity is the thing that opens our mind to the many open doors that a pessimistic outlook tends to close.

I ask you now, to close your eyes and open your minds. When you find yourself in a gloomy situation, remember, there are always two ways a situation can play out. You can have the most amazing day or you can have a day that goes from bad to worse. It all depends on the way you look at the challenges you're faced with.

I believe there is hope. There is always hope in everything that happens in our lives. Sometimes, it is just hidden behind a really big, dark cloud. All we need to do is look for the tiniest glimpse of a ray of sunshine behind that cloud. That tiny glimpse of sunshine in your gloomy situation, is hope.

Life may be overwhelming at times, but we need to look for sunshine not focus on big, dark and scary clouds.

Life challenges us every day but there is always hope. Sometimes we just have to look for it. We must strive for a positive attitude in all aspects of our lives, try to evaporate those clouds of doubt and never let go of our rays of sunshine.

Why Can't I?

2010-04-05T07:49:00.000-07:00

Last year, my grade 9 year, was probably the longest year I have ever experienced. It was not fun to say the least. I'm told that grade nine is not fun for most people. Apparently, it's the year of puberty. It's a year I would like to forget.

It started with a survey...
a survey aimed at finding out what the people in my class felt and thought. I needed help with getting up the stairs and getting books out of my bag. The questions were things like do you want to help Chaeli? Yes or no. If yes, what are you willing to help with? Then, there was space for comment.

The majority of my class said no. I didn't want to go to school the next Monday because I knew that people didn't want to help me, but I didn't know who said yes. So, I had a little mini-breakdown on the Monday and went to school on the Tuesday. It was the most awkward I have ever felt at school. I had to ask people to help me and I had no idea if they were doing it because they had to or because they genuinely wanted to.

There were some valid points made that you can't ignore - I don't want to hurt her, and I don't want to hurt myself. Two very understandable complaints. Then there were others - It's not my responsibility, she's not my friend so why should I help her. Those comments you can't ignore either. There were comments that were verging on the ridiculous. One was "Chaeli having a facilitator provides job opportunities for someone who would be otherwise unemployed". I'll let you draw your own conclusion on that one.

For almost the whole year, I was listening to my classmates say "If Chaeli can, why can't I?".

For example, I got typed notes and they had to write them, I was 'allowed' to be late for class and they weren't. All of these so-called problems could have been solved with a little common sense, but when puberty is involved all common sense seems to go out the window.

Grade 9 is the year when people are very self-centred and selfish. I am not denying that I was too in that mindset but I had to live with their selfishness as well.

I believe that people thought that I was just going to be grateful for whatever they were willing to give me. That I wasn't going to say when they were being insensitive or even just joking around about pushing me down the stairs. I told them what I thought of their remarks and they were shocked that I complained. They were helping me and now I was moaning.

General things that every 'normal' person does were inconceivable to them that I did the same things. Watching the Rugby World Cup Final, going to movies, knowing who's dating who. What, do they think I live in a hole somewhere?

People are amazed when they hear that I want to go to university. They're even more amazed when they find out that I do pure maths and not maths literacy. The assumption is that if your legs don't work, your brain doesn't work either. I plan to have a successful career, get married, have babies - you should hear the responses, how would you do that? is the most common response - just like any other 'normal' person.

This year is totally different. I am doing subjects that I enjoy with teachers who actually believe that I can deliver excellence and expect it from me. Having teachers who want you to be in their class because you can add value to lessons is a nice relief from feeling like I was just there to fill a space.

I am more optimistic now because people around me are more optimistic about my abilities and potential.

I was giving too much of my time, effort, and place in my thoughts to people who had no belief in me. I still find it hard to believe that they stole my mojo the way they did for the amount of time that they did. I spent a long time worrying about what they were thinking. I've stopped now.

I hope that you will try to see the ability, and potential in people instead of breaking down their self-belief and self-confidence, however unknowingly.

I'm in a better, more positive mindset because others are as well. Please remember that the way you think about people can be felt in the way you interact with them. Your views and thoughts affect people even if they are not voiced.

Here comes a comeback

2010-04-01T01:10:00.000-07:00

I have been at a mainstream school since my grade 3 year in 2003. Primary school is the polar opposite to high school in every way.

Primary school was amazing! You have more friends than you do people you avoid. In high school, people judge you before they've even said a word to you.

Now, for me, that's something that I've learned to deal with. Not just at school but wherever I go. I try to change their minds but sometimes it takes a long time for them to come around. I focus my time on the people who see me before they see my wheelchair. Those are the people I want to spend time with, laugh with and have fun with.

I am a person who gets along better with guys than I do with girls. I think girls have too much drama often created by themselves. It seems too much effort to worry about. So, me having mainly guy friends brought about concerns about my social situation. Teachers had concerns, I was fine.

There are some people you can't change because their perspective comes from a place of ignorance.

I'll sketch the scene for you. It was break time at school, I was walking down the passage - well, not walking but you know what I mean - and a guy who was just standing with his friend, looked up, and said "Watch out, here comes the cripple". I can imagine what you are thinking right now. My friend who was walking with me was ready to smack him silly but I told him not to. I turned around and said "Watch out, here comes the idiot". I just sat there, looked at him and waited for a response. He was offended by me calling him an idiot. I thought, he had no understanding of how offensive his comment was to more people than just me. In the end, all I told him was that I can't help being a cripple, but he can help being an idiot.

I have learned that the way to deal with ignorant people is to have better comebacks than them. It's funny, because people don't expect me to say anything at all never mind have something important to say.

Hopefully, by speaking up like that will open their eyes and minds to not see a 'cripple' but see the possibility in the person.

Take A Breath

2010-03-31T12:48:00.000-07:00

I'm writing this blog because I want to tell my story to people. You may not know alot about disability and the ability within the people who live with them. I hope to change that.

My name is Chaeli Mycroft, I am fifteen and living with cerebral palsy. I was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when I was eleven months old. I also have a degenerative neuropathy that the doctors discovered when I was 6. This is my medical condition. I do not live my life according to this diagnosis.

I may be in a wheelchair, but I live a somewhat normal, pretty hectic, stressfull at times, amazing life!

With this blog I want to show you that disabled people live life and function just as 'normal' people do, argue with siblings just as 'normal' people do and have bad days just as 'normal people do.

I hope by reading this you will discover things in yourself that you never knew you were capable of. I hope you will learn to just take a breath...and listen to what people have in their hearts instead of seeing the things that they cannot change.