Embracing cerebral palsy

Living with cerebral palsy isn’t an easy task. I often get asked, how do you live with such a hard condition?

The answer simple, you need to embrace your disability for what it is. It is a daily part of how you live. Admittedly, dealing with cerebral palsy as a child wasn’t easy, and it’s still not the easiest as a young woman when the world looks at you as a human being with a disability, you deal with a lot of stereotyping, discrimination and bullying.

How do I deal with them and how do I embrace my disability when some people may not see it as a beautiful thing or may not see it as something unique?

I just look in the mirror and say I am me, and nothing is going to change that and when people call me names or they don’t understand what cerebral palsy means I educate them to the best of my ability, and I say I’m proud of my disability in the way it forms me.

At first when I was younger, and I would go out in public with my mom, and people would be curious about my condition some people would point, and others would stare, and some people would just come up and say God bless you.

I hated it.

I wanted so badly to be normal like everyone else. As I got older, I realized that if I didn’t have my CP, then I wouldn’t be Tylia. I’ve decided to use my disability and my experience with it to educate people and inspire others. My hope is for others to embrace their disability regardless of if they have autism, ADHD, CP, etc.

You have to stop and embrace your disability, no matter what the outcome is.