Is it because I'm disabled?
I wasn’t happy this morning; I do a casting thing every now and again, (it’s extra work for TV & films ) this time it was such a nuisance because they didn't give me the time n location in the email.. really was infuriating.
Eventually I managed to get there, I guess it was just a morning hiccup in the grand scheme of things. In the afternoon, they gave us breakfast for lunch but I wasn't complaining - foods food right! I must admit, today I sat in the corner by myself like a recluse.. this was because every now and then, I do prefer to sit n gather my thoughts. Later I was feeling hungry so I went to get some food. Nobody else was eating because we're not allowed to eat outside of the specified times, but I was super hungry (some would even say I was starving) I went up to where they hand out the food, to my luck an AD (assistant director) was passing by, saw me and said 'what you doing here mate? Aren't you supposed to be in 'crowd holding' with the others...' I said I was hungry and he then said 'it's only cos you're my boy (meaning because I'm his mate)' he went up to the caterer guy, chatted to him for a bit (think I heard him say 'can you rustle up my mate some food') to me now, he said 'sorted, he's gonna take care of you' and the caterer said to me 'sausage n bacon roll ok?' I said, 'y-yeah-yes please'. Two minutes later I was handed a bacon n sausage roll. I was so pleased n thankful. My brother says 'you always seem to get stuff’ See what he doesn’t realise is sometimes my disability helps, as people either feel sorry for me or they’re worried about not helping the “disabled guy”! although I prefer to believe it’s because I’m so good looking….
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The beginning of my Barbados holiday started slow and easy as you would expect from a beach holiday (which is a good thing for me, cos as you might imagine anything can happen where I'm concerned). I went to the beach the next morning as I was conked out after all the hassle and complications at the airport.
The sun was amazing after the chill of New York. The sea was a deep blue in the distance and clear blue underfoot, I found myself looking for mermaids and sea creatures. Yeah I know! Calm down, I’m not mad LOL... By the third night, I was fully acclimatized and I made quite a few new friends. Anyway me, my support worker and a few of my new friends got the party started by getting on the dance floor. My jam came on, so I went, pulling out some fresh, unseen ever before moves. Anyway, everyone else left the dance floor - to be honest I liked being ‘the main attraction’ so I took advantage of it, until I saw my mum make a quick exit for some reason; I guess she didn’t like my interpretations/variations of what contemporary movement it was I was conducting. Anyway it was something different (and no, my ataxia does not help me when doing this lol) but I looked good (or so I thought) I ‘thought’ I was the king of the dance floor. The next night, there was a show with limbo dancing. The performer asked for volunteers; yeah you guessed it! I was the first one up. She demonstrated once then pointed to the limbo-bar. The thing with my Ataxia and I is, I don't seem to be able to accept when things are beyond me, but we shouldn't give up right? So I didn’t, but maybe this was one of the times that I should have. I kept going at the bar, even though it was chest high I just couldn't quite get under it, but I couldnt give up either. Everyone was cheering and encouraging me and i could feel the how irritated the performer was because I was taking too long, eventually I went under the bar with my knees hitting the floor. I'm not sure if I was embarrassed or relieved I was just glad it was over. Did I persist because I was too stubborn? Later, I met an older gentleman (I think he told me he was 71) who had similar disabilities to me but caused by different circumstances, we were sitting together and a jam came on, and guess what, so did my moves! I met others, can't give you any names, I may have mentioned that I forget things (due to the brain injury) and due to my brain injury I've forgotten to tell you that the island was having it's 50th anniversary and that I went to the beach everyday. The island holds a special place in my heart; the people are so friendly n polite, Barbados has got to be the best holiday I've been on in a while... |
AuthorHi I'm Lee, my mum encouraged me to write a blog about my experiences as a disabled young man and to be honest, I wasn't quite sold on the idea but thought it might help other disabled people and particularly able bodied people to see things from a different perspective. Ok, let me start at the beginning; my disability was acquired after I was involved in a hit and run accident over 10 years ago. I suffered a TBI (for those who don't know - Traumatic Brain Injury). Categories |
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