THE VOICE OF KNOWLEDGE

 Beside my marriage and my little people(and yes, I will ALWAYS call them my little people!), my greatest achievement is my college degree. 

I was never an A/B student.  I'm more of a B/C girl.  (I choose to believe MATH and SCIENCE are a figment of my imagination that only exists in an alternate universe!).  I always wanted to go to college.  My parents always encouraged me in this area.  I was the first in my family to go and to graduate from college.  I'm very proud of this.

`However...

When you're disabled, many people seem to automatically think that you are not as smart as they are.  This belief seems to expand over multiple versions of disabilities.  Living in a nursing home, you have people who talk down to you and assume that since you live here, you don't know how to take care of yourself.  There is a big difference between not knowing how to take care of yourself and not being able to take care of yourself.  I can tell you how I need to stand and pivot to get in and out of bed.  I can tell you what foods I like and what I don't like, and which ones cause me to choke.  I know what clothes I want to put one each day.

I used to have my degree hanging  above my bed - just waiting to get it hung up again.  This way, whoever takes care of me has to look at my degree and understand that I am smart and I can and will be a prominent voice in the way I'm cared for.