I recently came across Netflix’s Crip Camp after many friends recommend I watched the film from the second I saw James Lebrecht pop up on my screen and tell his story about how difficult it was for him growing up in a society that he felt wasn’t made for him because he had Spina Bifida it really hit home for me and I thought to myself I’m glad I’m not the only one that feels that way.
Throughout Crip Camp, you see the story on how friends come together to fight to have their voices heard in a society that wasn’t made for them.
At a time where the ADA was non-existent and the 504 plan was far from being put in place in our nation as I watched Advocates that I could consider my heroes like Judith Heumann who was the leader of the group and kept everything together.
Watching Crip Camp taught me that regardless of what my challenge is, I have to keep on going and be the voice that changes the world for the next generations to come who need someone to look up to in the world.
Because it was needed and wanted as I looked at the obstacles the advocates had to face in their society going up like not having ramps on busses or not having the proper education just because they are different from society and the world.
It made me feel like nothing could stop me from overcoming the challenges as a someone with Cerebral Palsy and what the world has to offer me as a young adult with Cerebral Palsy since it’s far from easy; constantly having to prove your abilities to the rest of the world because of the way society has programmed people to think about people with disabilities and all the stigmas around people like us.
It is a hard battle but watching Crip Camp reminds me that I’m not in this battle alone and their people out there are just like you and they once wanted to give up but they didn’t.
The message behind the Crip Camp helps me to have the strength I need to make it through day by day when I wake up in the morning and I have the worst pain in the left side of my body due to my spasticity in the left side of my body and I don’t feel like doing anything.
I think about all the sacrifices those advocates had to make a difference in the world like having two days without a shower just to let their voice be heard and marked in society so that the next generation of people with disabilities that were about to be born.
Which gives me the motivation to keep on going despite what my life with Cerebral Palsy has to bring me and watching Crip Camp reminds me that quitting isn’t an option and I have to remain strong through everything society has to bring me as a woman with Cerebral Palsy.
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