I was born with Cerebral Palsy (CP), something which I couldn’t prevent, change or know any different from.
Learning how to do simple tasks were tackled in one dimension, the way I could and “adapt” around.
Looking back now, the big challenges & hurdles faced were not, in reality, about me being able to do things right, but rather adapting to “norms” that I had to change with throughout.
I was taught that I was different, or rather that I have to do it slightly differently to how others did it – that it was a bigger challenge, extra time had to be allocated for me to things or things had to be adapted to accommodate my dexterity issues.
This created a stigma in my mind about my own ability growing up, limitations that I had placed upon myself. This is no ones fault, it’s something that I had to process individually, but I imagine I not alone in this.
The “adaptions” I had created were, in fact, the only way I knew how to work through applications of tasks. So, I ask now, does that make them an adaption to me personally or having to “fit in”? It’s an interesting question isn’t it? I suppose we all face this is some or another.
It was my only way. That being said, it was the process of being shown a particularly way that suited an able bodied peer that created the hurdles – knowing that I had to (more often that not) find my own individual way to make things work to its optimum level.
Now I don’t look back and resent this, unbeknown to me at the time, it was building resilience that would form through this process throughout my life & in someways I unwittingly used it to build a subconscious strength that I still use to this day.
I am me and I wouldn’t change my disability that I have, it is part of me and the path that I’m on.
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