My daily supports are varied and vast, a fact that I am thankful for everyday.
My phone wakes me up each day, provides me with the most updated news and weather and gets me my latest text messages and emails while bringing me my calendar of appointments for the day. My phone also connects me to my mom who is my greatest support. She and I talk everyday as I drive to work, she is my best friend and therapist.
Another support is my six-year-old son, he is my reason for being and he makes me laugh every day, he is a joy to be around. My friends and colleagues are a daily support to me as we share war stories, shoulders to cry on and stories to laugh. My life partner, Michael, lives in California and we share a past, a present and a future that motivates me daily.
I choose a visual disability for my challenge. I am planning to go back to school to get my license to work with visually impaired/blind individuals as I have been working with infants and toddlers that are considered medically fragile, several of them have shunts resulting in cortical visual impairments and some of my older students, including my own child, have visual impairments which affect perceptual and fine motor skills. I try to imagine life without my site or with limited site and I shudder; I am a visual learner, preferring to see things versus hearing them. I can't imagine losing my independence, being able to drive, take care of myself, run errands, see my son's beautiful face and smile. I can't even fathom what life without site would be like, maybe if I was born with this disability and didn't know the difference then I would be alright with this challenge but having lived with my site this long I don't believe that even having support in the form of technology to read for me, a guide dog for independence and in home support for other tasks I would be happy.
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