Reactions

I have been invited to be a guest on a show this monday, it talks about different things every week. This episode is: I'm in love with a person with a disability. Is going to have four guests, two that are the people with the disability and two that are the people in love. Once I accepted the invite, they provided me with the questions that can be part of the show, one of them in particular, got my attention, this one was, What was the reaction of the non-disable family when they met you? I that moment I had to think about something I had never think of before. I've been very "lucky" (if you can call it that) with the families of my ex boyfriends and even more with Mike's. He's parents love me even more than they love him, hahaha just kidding but almost! From moment one they made me feel part of the family and they are forever trying to make my life as easy as they can.

So this whole thing made me think about the reactions that I get normally, and is amazing how situations can vary, but for sure the ones I notice the most are: #1- Bureaucrats (people in banks, governmental offices, management offices) want to help me. Their pity  "Sympathy" for me, over takes them and I get what I'm there for. Don't get me wrong sometimes it bothers me but mostly I just take the opportunity. At the end  they are just really trying to make me happy.

#2- When people meet me while I'm siting down. For example, if I'm in a social situation and stand up and go to the bar for a drink, I can tell the SHOCK on people faces. They really don't know what to make of it. Most times we stay in the awkward moment for the next hour or so until they just get used to it and the question just stays in the back of their minds. Or fewer times they just ask, and if you are an AMCer you know how hard is to find people that knows what on earth Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita is. So the explanation begins.... an few min after, they just get on with it. When I was around 14 to 21 years old, I just to have lots of fun with this questions, I used to tell all sort of stories just to play a bit and have fun with it. The stories went  from, " I fell down out of window from the third floor to I was ran over by truck" and the funny thing is that reactions where softer than when I just say I was born with....

#3- When people thinks or say "I'm amazed you did that!!! wow!!!You have AMC and you are a business woman"  or "Did you paint that???", as a friend with AMC once told me, WE are born with such unfair advantage... because it is SO EASY to exceed THEIR expectations. 

So I finish this post still thinking, why do people react to us as if we were "Special"?, we are not! We are just people that are doing the same things just a bit different.  

Xx

Misha