A Rough Winter

I posted on here before about how difficult it is to get around during the winter time. For 3 months, or sometimes more, I am stuck within my house or school setting. It's frustrating, because sometimes no matter what I do to prepare, the weather seems to just hang on for dear life. It's safe to say that the winter we've had this here has overstayed its welcome. I usually don't like to share the poetry that I have written, but during the winter wrote a piece encapsulating the feelings that winter sometimes causes me. So here it is:

Silence

Darkness falls, a city sleeps
Wide awake, my mind, it shrieks
Seeking escape from a frozen cage
That seems an eternal ice age

Rain has fallen, turned to ice
Now, mind and body pay the price
Prematurely plagued by "disease"
No match against this deep-freeze

A simple task becomes a chore
Daily life, an all-out war
Snow, not Earth's blanket, beautiful and bold
But rather my straight-jacket, ensnaring and cold

Isolation is my enemy
Socialization a scarce commodity
Hatred burns, as my heart yearns for sun
Release me! Icy hell, be done

Sleep, like spring so far away
My frozen being shan't thaw today
Winter, cease your grip of violence
Mind, regain some peaceful silence

I wrote this at beginning of December, when knew it was going to get pretty bad… But I know you can see it still works very well for the current weather we are having

Karli

Surprise!!

 Tonight we celebrated my great grandma's 90th birthday at the Mandarin! It was great to see so many family members in one room, to celebrate one of the strongest people in our family! For a little while, my great grandma thought that everyone had forgotten her birthday, and we were able to surprise her by gathering altogether just for her! My Nan has brought so much joy to my life, from when I was little and my fascination with the English accent, to my everlasting love of  her stories. Tonight, I pretty much saw her story, in one room she came to Canada from England to start a life, and from that began the birth and expansion of my family. At 90 years old, she is one of the most caring, compassionate, and witty individuals that I know. If tonight has taught me anything, it is that you should always make time to tell someone you love them, because you never know when the opportunity to do that will cease. What I do know, is how lucky my family and I are to have someone like my Nan. I'll be lucky if I grow to be even half the person she is!

Reflection Week

Usually at this time of year, I get really frustrated when the majority of Facebook brags about their vacation destinations. Quite honestly I've been drowning myself in work, because I've had nothing better to do. As much as it sucks now, when the vacation goers are cramming, I'll kick back and laugh. This week has been an interesting week for me, because I've done a lot of reflecting. I wrote an article for the March issue of the school paper. Writing the paper was kind of liberating, because it reminded me of my strength as a child. I won't explain the article as a whole, but I will just explain that it was about growing up with out any sort of role model in this same situation as I was. I find that sometimes when you grow up, you forget the lessons you learned as you were little. Writing this article has allowed me to revisit the fact, that though there is support in many places, you can't always rely on the same people all the time. Sometimes you have to find happiness in yourself.

Karli

Be a Good Sport

Sometimes, the Olympics is a hit and miss for me. In the previous Olympics  I got emotionally invested in some of the stories, and I liked the fact that people like Rick Hansen would take his part in giving us the background of some of our finest athletes. I don't doubt that the athletes showcased within the Olympics are very skilled and kindhearted people, but I just wish that we saw more of the Paralympics. Growing up, I was never into sports, because I was under the impression that because I had cerebral palsy I could not participate in them. Every time I was sad down in front of the TV screen, and I heard the sounds of a  game, I never saw anyone that I could relate to. Of course I knew who the great were like Wayne Gretzky and Ty Domi, and I had even met them in my youth, but I always knew I was different from the sports stars I saw on TV. Though the coverage of the Paralympics seems to be improving this year with a reported 151 hours of coverage, I believe that it deserves full coverage. The Olympics tends to send the message that you can achieve anything you dream of, if you only work hard enough. I think that the disabled community children or otherwise, could use more of the uplifting effect of that message as well, and see it though a lense they can relate to, and people they can identify with. I can honestly say that if I had seen more paralympic sports as a child, and even now I wouldn't  be so impartial to sports. Disabled youth of today need to see that anything  is possible, no matter what your situation is, that you don't necessarily need to stand on a podium to make your country proud.

Kill it with Kindness

Today was an interesting day. Because I don't have my half course anymore, I was originally content hiding out in the corner and playing video games. Thankfully I ran into my friend Maryam, and she convinced me to join her at a mental health awareness presentation There we learned about the services offered in our community as well as Kings itself. Though every presentation had informative content, something about the Kings presentation stuck with me. The presenters said that the media had trained us to focus on the negatives of the world. In the news the negatives always outweigh the positive and because we are always subjected to that our minds do the same thing. He advised that we find our balance, no matter how stressful or busy life gets, there is always time to do something positive for yourself or others. So today I did just that. There has been the crazy trend of "neknominations" going around the Internet, where people are dared to drink insane amount of alcohol which has led to four separate deaths due to alcohol poisoning. I personally do not think that any dinner ever is worth risking your life, so I killed it with kindness. I posted on Saturday about how the custodial staff at Kings have done a lot to help me out. So today I returned the favour and bought the 12 donuts to share amongst the staff. To see their faces with sudden surprise was really good, and it made me feel better about all the stresses I've been facing in the last little while. I think that I could get used to paying it forward for myself or others, and hopefully remain positive. It certainly helped having my friend Matt who helped record it, because I couldn't have asked for a better person to share the moment with. I encourage all of my friends, and readers to start doing the same, a little positivity goes a long way.

Karli

I'm Right Here…

Today was definitely a Monday. I was looking forward to dinner time, and was not surprised by not being informed that there was a new worker in training today. What I was surprised by though is the fact that the new worker could see that I was capable of directing my own care, and still proceeded to ask my regular worker what to do and how I liked things.  I know sometimes new workers get nervous and then check with the ones that know me really well, but the thing is I don't just get this behavior from workers. I get it from teachers over the years, inexperienced or not, and even as late in the game as university. They've been too afraid to approach we were to ask what I'm capable of, so they shifted questions onto my EA's or notetakers, often when I'm in the room and have already answered the question for myself. Sometimes it's like I'm speaking a foreign language or something. I think what that bothers me most about situations like these, is the fact that I am able to speak, and that I know somebody out there is less vocal the I am, and they are not able to voice their discomfort or their anger at not being able to communicate and be understood. If there's been anything I've learned from having a disability myself, as well as working with others with various different disabilities, it's that no matter what disability you have, there is always a way to communicate. It just might not be the typical way you'd expect. 

Karli

Going the Extra Mile

The custodial staff at Kings University College, go above and beyond their duties of cleaning the floors and making sure Kings is in tiptop shape. I don't believe enough credit is given to them for all that extra work that they actually do. Aside from hearing snippets of conversation about how the cleaning staff try to keep the residence clean and in order for the girls in Wemple, they have helped me a great deal. Every morning when I get off the bus to come to school, at least one of them is there to open the door for me or in the cafeteria and ready and willing to say good morning and wish me a good day. And though I don't know them all by name, they all seem to know mine, and smile and make jokes about my speeding! They all seem to know that winter is a rough season for me, and they inquire about how the sidewalks are, and what they can do to keep me from getting stuck in the snow. Last Tuesday my wheel is broken, and I asked the staff if they had tools to at least help me tighten it up. I didn't know if I was allowed to ask that of them since they had so much other work to do, but they came out with the right set of tools, and helped without question. They are so kindhearted that they even express concern on a day that I forget to wear my mittens, or a hat. If I ever need help being escorted to class because of too much snowfall, their boss has given them the okay to just assist me, or anyone else in a chair without having to ask. They warn me if the elevator is broken, and how long it will take to fix; they spend time. fixing broken handicapped doors to make sure I can get in. This is all stuff I noticed that they do for me and people in a similar situation as I, but Iimagine what they do for all of the students as a whole. So much of their work goes unnoticed, and it upsets me to know that. The real beauty in Kings is the people who work tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure we are at our best.

Coming Up Short

It's been a long time since I've written anything, and for that I apologize…

On Monday I spent my days on main campus, with a class in the social science building from 1230 to 230. It's not much better than when the class was located in the university college building. Aside from the building being an absolute maze, or the obstacles of any sort imaginable, I find that sitting in a wheelchair means even more obstacles getting around The most frustrating thing I find about the social science building as well as the UCC, is that the elevator doors close too quickly. If I am surrounded by a crowd of people, I get several reactions: friendly passerby, will help me avoid the elevator door crashing into my wheelchair, whereas in the other case of person will just look on my struggle to merely enter the elevator, and look at you with me with the eyes of pity, or otherwise as a source of enjoyment. When it comes to the latter case, I can assure you that it wasn't my intention to be asource of amusement, I am just trying to get to class! When I finally manage to make it into the elevator, unscathed or not, I find that I am too short to reach the buttons. It takes me a good 5 to 10 minutes just to angle myself in the right position to reach the butt sometimes, and that's frustrating because even with my tilt feature I can barely reach it. In the ideal world, there would be a stick in every elevator which a person of short stature could reach to help them and pushing the buttons, but I am unsure of who to ask. At Western and Kings alike, I have trouble also locating the wheelchair accessible buttons. Sometimes they are in a really convenient place, easy to find and easy to reach, but other times they are not. I believe, that I should not have to look around every single corner trying to guess where it is located, and I wish that more sense was behind where they are placed. I know I am lucky that Western is accessible at all, but sometimes I feel like they missed the mark. It would be nice not to be reminded at least once a week, that I am not as tall as I feel…

Karli