Living Life To The Fullest
By: Thomas Davila
A disability is defined as any condition of the body or mind that makes it more difficult for the person with the condition to do certain activities and interact with the world around them. I do not like the word disabled.
I prefer the word physically challenged. I am capable of doing almost anything that a person that is not physically challenged can do and half the time my way is most likely easier and better. Society has taught people that individuals within the disabled community are incapable of having a somewhat of a normal life.
What is normal?
What I mean by normal is going to school, earning your degree or degrees, having a career, and finding love. I want what just about anyone else should want: to go to school, and excel in an environment that people, including my very own cousin, say that I should not be. I have my critics and I am proving them wrong by being a student at Chaffey College and two semesters away from earning my associate of arts degree in Journalism. The big question now is will I transfer to a four year college after I graduate from Chaffey College?
When I finish at Chaffey College I will have been attending college for over twenty years; and to answer that question despite everything I have been through since about 2007, I am going to transfer to a four year college.
In 2007, I was hospitalized for over a month at Chino Hospital. I got really sick, and they had to insert a tube just below my waistline that I still have to this day. They also had to remove my gall bladder. I thought I was going to have a big scar but I do not. I ended up having three surgeries and spent over a week in the intensive care unit.
Being in the hospital can take a lot out of a person whether if you are physically challenged or not. I am used to it after having twenty surgeries and other medical procedures performed on me.
I used to be really strong and muscular before I was hospitalized. I liked to workout almost on a daily basis to keep myself active. When I was in grade school I liked to workout and have little competitions with my best friend Greg, who is also in a wheelchair, to see who could lift the most weight.
As I have gotten older working out and moving around in my wheelchair has gotten somewhat harder for me to do. Other tasks I do throughout my day has also become a challenge for me, like getting dressed every morning. I get down on the floor from my wheelchair to get dressed everyday. It is just easier for me to do that instead of getting dressed on my bed like physical therapists have suggested for me. It does not help when my left hip is completely detached from my pelvis and my right hip is on its way out as well.
I am not saying all of this because I want people to feel sorry for me. That is not my intention. My intentions are to educate people about what it is like to be physically challenged. I also feel like it is my responsibility to say this, although I have my physical challenges I do not consider myself to be that way. In my eyes, I am just an average person like anybody else.