A New Path

A few of my readers were somehow shocked, some were reluctant to express their thoughts, and some were disappointed at the main content of my last entry titled: High Times. I would like to point out some main reasons why I titled my last entry “High Times”. It was not just the fact that I coincidently smoked marijuana; that just fit in perfectly. One reason was that I was it was a time when was in my most peak physical condition which I didn’t talk much about. It was a time when I had the most freedom and was able to explore the city I adored the most. It was when I had my first crush. And it was when I could do anything I wanted before I was completely wheelchair bound due to some unusual physical decline. Life is full of surprises.

This brings me to my next entry titled: A New Path. After my High Times time, suffering great physical decline and was pot smoking free for a few years I soon got bored of just being, I want more. I wanted to do something. I wanted to be around people who were doing something with their life, or at least trying to. I never thought of anything I did as spectacular like many people would, and I’m not sure why. This goes right along with what I discussed in my entry titled: Acceptance and the explanation entry. I never set any goals for myself. I had a bad train of thought that I was an underachiever. Yet, only now, I wanted more.

Soon after I attend a few semesters I met my first girlfriend. She also had cerebral palsy. She reminded me of me when I was fourteen because you can barely tell she had cerebral palsy. She also had dyslexia which I where I came in handy. I would help her with her reading and math. Once we were is a walk-a-thon benefiting a learning disability foundation where I walked a quarter of a mile, after gaining some of my strength back. We went everywhere together and we were inseparable. After getting to know her very well it was like opening a can of worms. Here was this very cute young lady that was sexually abused since she was six year old. I wanted to help her so bad but I knew that it was her that had to help herself, she wouldn’t let anyone help her. Right about the middle of my junior college years I started and hosted a support group called: The Courage to Heal”. The support group was free and open to all students that were or had suffered from any kind of abuse. The support group lasted a year and I felt everyone had learned a great deal.

My junior college was quite a journey. I had I drop few courses because I was not ready or I missed too many lectures. I also took miscellaneous courses instead of taking the courses I needed to obtain my Associates degree. One very sad setback that was not college related that took a whole year to get back into the routine was the passing of my dear mother, my best friend. My mother died of melanoma, but her case was quite unusual. Her melanoma got into her blood stream due to an open sore that had healed up. She died four months after finding out she had melanoma. Some time after my mother passed away, I ended my relationship with my girlfriend. My ex girlfriends companionship was a very tough one for me. I am a person of closeness, cuddleness, and intimacy but she could not return those in return because of her unfortunate pass.

In getting back into the routine I vowed to finish my associates degree and dedicate it to my mother. She helped me tremendously, despite the fact I had become smarted then her academically. She took me to and from school. She sometimes paid for my books. And she put up with me all those years.

And then I did it. I graduated with a little less than a B grade point average

High Times

When I started to write this blog I declared that was not going to candy coat myself because it would mean I am fake and I would be misrepresenting myself. I felt needed to utter that to remind myself not to worry about what people think of me. This next entry might be mind-blowing to some of my readers but remember I am keeping it real. I am going to take back to time in my life what I call “High Times” and how I came to a certain realization.

I grew up around people of the 70’s and the 80’s. I would have to say that most of my highlight and what I talked about in my entry titled “Taking a Turn” happened in mid on into the late 80’s. I ran amuck in the in the early part of this time. Not that I was a trouble maker or did bad things, I was just exploring my freedom; therefore, my physical condition was at its peak. And where I grew up, it was paradise. We had three beaches, eight parks, numerous places where we could go play video games, almost a hamburger hut on every block, and everything was within talking distance. The people that I was surrounded by were pretty down earth and they were not prejudice; however, they smoked marijuana and drank.

I knew about the pot smoking and beer drinking, but I wasn’t aloud to do it, of course, because I was a young boy. When I got older and became more aware of these activities I saw it as the ultimate social thing to do. At the start of my teenage years I eventually started smoking pot with the few friends I had without my mom’s knowledge. Eventually I started smoking pot with my mom and her friends when I got older. I had one rule, go to school and I did. Smoking pot was such a social thing that it became a part of my life. It was the thing to do. No peer pressure. Nobody waved a joint in my face, and said: “come on Steve, try it.” In fact, it was such a social thing that I cannot remember how I started. All I know is I liked it at the time.

Right about the middle of my “High Times” time I started having trouble walking and became a guinea pig as I described in the entry title: “Taking a Turn.” Smoking pot became the most social thing I did during this time to where I smoked it heavily, almost every hour on the hour. This went on for quite some time. After the doctors from three different institutions gave a verdict of nothing was wrong I continued to smoke pot and out with my friend.

It wasn’t until a few years after I graduated high school that one day that I woke up in the morning and made a shocking revelation to my mom. I got up out of bed, nothing exciting or dramatic happened the night before, and went to my mom and told her: “I’m quitting smoking.” My mom was shocked at my surprising announcement and made sure every knew. I don’t know what do into me. The best way I could describe it is I looked at how content I was treating my life, and said to myself: “I don’t like this.” A whole lot of people could not believe how I could smoke pot for so long and stop cold turkey without any help or counseling. Looking back now it was will power.

Some people might look down on me ot some may be applause… it’s all about keeping it real.

Explanation

At the end of my last blog entry titled “Acceptance” I wrote “By now, I hope, you can grasp my argument that being too acceptant of yourself can have a negative effect of the self.” Apparently, a few of my readers had trouble grasping my negative concept of acceptance. In this entry I will try explain it more clearly.

People who know me very well knows, when I write, I tend to be very selective choosing my word and get somewhat analytical. When I decided to write the entry on “Acceptance” I wanted to show the pro’s and con’s. In other words, I wanted to show how I handled accepting myself. In the entry titled “Acceptance” I used the entry titled “Taking a Turn” to give a clear picture to my readers. I concluded that I did not give a clear argument talking about my negative concept on accepting myself. When I was writing the entry titled “Acceptance” I was wrestling with my thoughts on how to best describe my concept.

Now, I did a good job showing how being accepted is an excellent contribution to our self-esteem. But when something goes wrong and nobody can figure out why and accepting that this is how it’s going to be; however, in my mind it gives the concept of acceptance a whole new meaning. Acceptance may imply only a lack of outward, behavioral attempts at possible change, but the word is also used more specifically for a felt or hypothesized cognitive or emotional state. Having said that, being too accepting somehow makes you psychologically blind to possible positive change; therefore, this is what I meant by when I said Acceptance having a negative effect. I hope this helps

Acceptance

I have been struggling and wrestling with my thoughts trying to come up with a opening for this entry, but my mind just kept coming up blank. I want to go into depth about something I mentioned in my previous blogs. It is something that can work for you and somehow, eventually, work against you. Looking back at my childhood and how my mom was so accepting of me even though I showed very little characteristics of cerebral palsy, the people and community saw me as a “normal” kid, and the friends I had included me in outside events and social activities I feel very blessed to have that positive experience.

Unlike other children that were not accepted by their families or their peers for not being tall enough, for being too fat, maybe because of the color of their skin, because of their certain disability, or just because there was something very little different about them I am very fortunate to have been raised in such a positive environment. A good surrounding gave me encouragement to thrive physically. My doctor, Sal Bernstein who passed away last year, gave me all the encouragements in the world to do what ever I wanted. So being accepted can make a world of difference and also can be a great motivator. The key outcome of acceptance, to the self, is being loving and happy with who you are.

“Self acceptance leads to a new life with new possibilities that did not exist before because you were caught up in the struggle against reality. People have trouble accepting themselves because of a lack of motivation. Some have this misconception that if you are happy with yourself you won’t change things about yourself. This isn’t true, you don’t have to be unhappy with yourself to know and actively change things you don’t like. Acceptance could be called the first step in change.” [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acceptance]

I have yet to find something, anything, to back up my thoughts when I mentioned that acceptance can work against you. If I am the first, which I don’t think I am; let’s see how this plays out. I believe one can be too accepting with the self that it hinders their success or motivation. In my blog entry titles: “Taking a turn” I talked about the downhill spiraling of my physical condition, how I had herds of doctors trying to find the missing link and concluding there was nothing wrong reserving to accept that the condition I was in was acceptable. I also mentioned that I was still accepted by my family, friends and the community in which I lived as being included. One of the main points I was trying to point out in that blog is how I was so accepting of myself after all that commotion. So accepting that I didn’t thrive. I didn’t find the need to keep myself motivated. I became very self-cautious. I didn’t know what I could do.

By now, I hope, you can grasp my argument that being too acceptant of yourself can have a negative effect of the self. It took me a very long time to figure this out. Now it is time to fight back and say what Rick Hoyt says "CAN".

Explanation.

One of my readers who also has cerebral palsy was just a bit confused when I said I got worse. She mentioned she was confused because it is known to the cerebral palsy community, or should I say as far as we know, cerebral palsy is not supposed to get worse. Since I went through a lot of testing and the fact that I am a college graduate with a B.A. in psychology and with some basic courses in biology I feel I can offer an educated explanation.

I am confident to support the saying that cerebral palsy does not progress, at least in my case. But one may still ask, “How did I get worse”? First, I’d like to offer a very brief history of my early years. When I was diagnosed at six months old it was determined that I needed to overcome certain muscular patterns that my cerebral palsy was causing. As you may sense from my previous blog, I literally overcame all of the muscular patterns that my cerebral palsy was causing and I was able to begin walking at just before two year old. Now, when I started having trouble walking at about fifteen and a half I started having those same muscular patterns that my cerebral palsy caused. Still, one may still ask, “why did I get worse?” A few years before I started having trouble walking I stopped seeing the doctor that was monitoring my prognosis because my mom did not have medical insurance anymore. Without the doctor to monitor me I had no guidance. Furthermore, as for everyone we all go through a growth burst at that age. Since I was not an active person or an athletic person and my growth burst in progress I got weak very fast. My muscles got weaker coordinately. My right arm contracted severely. And my scoliosis got worse.

This explanation makes more sense on number of points from every single test the doctor performed on me, to my knowledge I have about the body and the timing. I feel confident saying that cerebral palsy does not progress, but the conditions can. The damage in a particular area of the brain is there and won’t get worst, unless there is a head trauma or a stroke later in life. It is my hope this explanation will help my readers and bring to light the importance to continue monitoring our cerebral palsy in our adolescent years

Taking a Turn

In my case, my cerebral palsy took that turn. At sixteen years old I started having difficulty walking, my right arm started contracting in, and my scoliosis was As the cerebral palsy community knows that our condition does not get worse. It is, however, in those rare circumstances that cerebral palsy, if not monitored carefully at a young age, can get worse. I am not sure if “worse” is the right word to use in the event that everything seems to take a turn.

In my case, my cerebral palsy took that turn. At sixteen years old I started having difficulty walking, my right arm started contracting in, and my scoliosis was more pronounced. My mom started taking me to the doctors to figure out why I was taking such a turn. After going to doctor to doctor, hospital to hospital for three years nothing was found. I was “normal”. When I ask for physical therapy, the therapist gave me a power wheelchair. It was like everyone was accepting the fact that this was now how I was suppose to be. Since my mom, my family, and everyone else around me was so accepting of me my cerebral palsy was not an issue as I mentioned in my previous blog. And since I have such a accepting character I did not have the power to put up a fight.

Was not an issue.

it seems to me that the more people talk about their cerebral palsy the more issues they have or the more uptight they are. now i know this is not the case for a lot of people, but i'm sure it is the case for some people.  the issues may come in various forms.

for example, i didn't consider my cerebral palsy an issue because my cerebral palsy wasn't that severe, in fact, it was very mild in the earlier days. my walk was nearly normal, my speech was slightly slurred but very hard to notice, and i held my right arm slightly inward but very usable. i was able to run, ride a two wheel bike, and drive a car.

beside my physical characteristic of cerebral palsy, i was very accepted by my mother, family, the friends i had, and the people around me. i developed a natural ability to give off positive energy regardless to the situation i was in. in short, i attracted people. however, i became a very positive person and never complained. i was not taught to not complain, i just had that nature enter peace. i, to this day, wonder how i deleloped such a talent.

i've had people ask me how i do it, how i attract people, or how i keep it positive when everything all around is negitive. well, its not that i dont see it because, believe me, i do see it. it how you present it, how you carry your self, and how give off your own energy.

remember, how you give off your own energy. now, i know that cerbral palsy as well as other disabilities can be very severe and it can make life very unbearable. it is your choice how you live your life. life is not algebra class where a negitive times a negitive equals a positive. therfore, if you are going to be mad at the world and blame everyone, including yourself, for the disability we have life will be hectic.