Living with Cerebral palsy, I have received many compliments over the years like you’re such an inspiration or you’re strong I don’t know how you do it.
But the one “compliment” that I always get from people who see me out and about rolling in my power chair is you’re too pretty to be in that wheelchair when you are going to get up and walk?
Whenever I hear this compliment from someone I cringe and I think to myself only if they understood how much I have the desire to get up and walk without feeling a single ounce of stiffness and tightness throughout my left side because that’s where my Cerebral Palsy is most affected by hearing this ”compliment” makes me start to wonder about all the what-ifs and it brings me down into a very negative headspace that I don’t like to be in as someone who has to constantly figure to adapt to the world with Cerebral Palsy and having to learn how to accept the fact that you are always going to need some sort of assistance to help us walk and get around and do the everyday task that becomes ten times harder for people like us
When do people say you’re too pretty to be in that wheelchair when are you going to get up and walk? It makes it seem like we are just being lazy and we enjoy sitting around and doing nothing all day long and that’s far from the case. People with Cerebral Palsy have ambitions , dreams and goals that we want to achieve.
By people complimenting me, by saying you’re too pretty to be in that wheelchair when are you going to get up and walk? makes me feel as if they are placing me in a category of something I’m far from in a sense because believe me I work very hard to build up my strength by doing physical therapy and Aqua therapy so that I could finally get up and fully walk on my own for long distances without having to use the wheelchair or relying on my caregivers for help when it comes to being the independent person I always wanted to be as a person with Cerebral Palsy since we don’t get a thrill out of sitting in a wheelchair and being depending on someone we want more for ourselves and our lives.
When someone tries to compliment me by saying you’re too pretty to be in a wheelchair when are you going to get up out of the chair and walk it reminds me that there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done when it comes to educating people on cerebral palsy and how we see the world but I hope that one day we can work together to end all the stigmas and misconceptions that made people think that saying you’re too pretty to be in that wheelchair when are you going to get up and walk? is a compliment for people living with Cerebral palsy and those around them.
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