My Life is Like a Box of Chocolates

By now we’ve all heard the famous saying “life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what’s you’re going to get.” It happens to be one of my favorite sayings from the novel Forrest Gump and Grump & CO by Winston Groom.

I live by that saying every day. Since I have cerebral palsy, my life has always been like a box of chocolates, and I never know what kind I’m going to get. Sometimes it could be the chocolate with an awful taste to it, like the raspberry kind in my opinion, or sometimes it could be the chocolate that has the coconut filling. Who knows.

When you have a condition like cerebral palsy, you never know what the day’s journey has set for you. It may be a good day, and some other days it may be difficult. When I have stressful days, I remember the famous saying of Forrest Gump.

When I first saw the movie Forrest Gump when I was a kid, I never got the point of it. I never understood the true meaning of it or even gravitated towards it. It wasn’t until recently, when I did some research on Forrest Gump and found out it was a novel, that I understood.

I read the novel, and I immediately fell in love with the beautiful literature of Winston Groom and was inspired by his words and art of writing.

I immediately realized that I had a connection with Forrest Gump. Forrest faced a lot of adversity and a lot of obstacles within society because he had a low IQ and he wasn’t the fastest learner. When it comes to school, I can relate to that as well, because when I was in school, I suffered from severe test anxiety. Although I would ace my class work and homework, I wasn’t able to pass the test, which caused me to get held back in the third grade. It made me question if I was going to be successful in life, but I’m happy to say that, looking back 22 years later at all my struggles, I can write about those experiences and advocate to make the world a better place and understand what cerebral palsy is.

Although my life could be like a box of chocolates and I never know what I’m going to get when I wheel outside those doors and who I will meet, I am truly blessed for the life that I’ve been given.

I thank Winston Groom for inspiring me and teaching me a precious lesson. I shouldn’t be ashamed of my life with cerebral palsy. I should just embrace it.