As many of you know, until a few years ago my only relationship with Arthrogryposis was that I had it. Nothing else, no support groups, no blog, I didn´t even know how to pronounce it properly (honestly), but life being life took me on the roller coaster now called "Misha Dream Walker".
I felt life had given me so much I had to give back in any way I could.
While growing up, I had amazing people shaping my charterer and influencing my spirit, I had such powerful people around me, that it didn´t even cross my mind that I would not achieve something because of my disability.
Nowadays kids are very lucky they just jump into a computer and they have these great examples of people that are just like them doing all these amazing things, and not just that, you can go to social media and with one # (hashtag) find pages like #yoocandoanything (https://yoocanfind.com/) portraying this amazing disabled people - all in one place- doing all sorts of things, from modeling to winning medals at the Olympics.
To me this is just plain wonderful, it was different story when I was kid, my empowerment had to come from other sources very carefully chosen, as many might not have understood that I didn´t want to hear the someday I was going to be included and get invited to the birthday party, that some day I will find a job that helped me pay my bills, that some day someone truly special will come along a love me just because it takes someone very wonderful to love someone like me, that one day I will have few friends who would love my company and will be just like me.
One day I would settle and have a comfortable life.
But... I never wanted , nor needed, to hear those things.
I needed someone to come a tell me that I was going to be invited to the birthday party because I´m a cool person to hang out with, I need to hear that with hard work I could be anything I wanted, even that lady that travels the world for a living and that it will bring me many more joys than just paying my bills, I needed to hear that I should go for my crush, and that I could be loved by anyone I set my heart onto, just to go for it, because I was worthy of love and anyone could fall in love with me (yes, like anyone else), I wanted to hear that I would have as many friends as I wanted to and be envolved in different groups accordingly to my interests.
I needed and wanted that, and that is why I why surrounded myself with people who believed in me.
Now I just want to be that person I needed while growing up, I want to tell AND show kids ( and everyone really) that you shouldn´t settle, that you should always fight for what you want and dream about, because no dream is too big and you were put in this world to be special and meaningful, I want to tell you that your life matters and you make a difference so please please please don´t ever settle for less than your own greatness.
Today, 5 years after starting this wonderful journey, I just want to be the person I needed while growing up.
