Hi, welcome!
I’ve thought about creating something like this for a while. Somewhere where I can jot down thoughts and share them with the world, but for the longest time I assumed that the ‘world’ wouldn’t want to read my rambles. And to be honest, I still think that’s probably true! But if anything, this can hopefully serve as a place for me to come and reflect, not only on the present but on the past and future.
I’m a person from Scotland with multiple different disabilities (crap brag, I know) and I spent a lot of my life trying not to reflect on that. When I received three diagnoses in my early teenage years, I tried to ignore, hide and forget this part of myself. There were multiple reasons for this, but I think the main reason was that I hated my disabilities. And, by extension of this, I hated myself. But at least if I could remove, or at least distance, the disabilities from myself then I could not resent myself, right? Well, it didn’t exactly work out that way!
But as I learnt more about disability and connected with other disabled people, (very) slowly I started to accept—and even like—myself. I discovered the Social Model of Disability, which argues that, yes, while an individual may have an impairment, it is in fact society that is oppressive and discriminatory and causes the ‘disability’ that one experiences.
Now, I love my disabilities – well, some of them! While I could do without chronic pain and fatigue, I love the sense of community I have made with other friends with arthritis. I love that my autism allows me to see and interact with things differently. I am doing a masters in Disability Studies, Rights and Inclusion with a bunch of great disabled and non-disabled people. While disability has restricted my life in so many ways, it has also opened me up to so many different opportunities I wouldn’t have experienced were I not disabled.
Anyway, I digress, which I do a lot! But this is me and this is my website – welcome!