I live with invisible disabilities - not only am I "legally blind" but I also suffer from anxiety and depression and I think that those disabilities were acquired as a result of trying to live with the vision loss.
So I get challenged all the time - as recently as lately when I flashed my CNIB card which allows me on public transit - and the driver says "Is that yours?" As if.... I look like someone who would f&#N pretend something like this.
I know I look cool and for the most part I'm a pretty happy person. But truth is, I'm living a life I didn't plan on living - it's difficult for a lady about town to stay in every evening and weekend because I don't drive. No night vision and messed up depth perception challenge my ability to be mobile.Taking a bus to networking events in the rain is very tough. Some days I feel downright sorry for myself - but then I give myself a kick in the arse and get over it. I have that privilege.
But no one gets to ask if I'm pretending. It's no ones business. I don't need to go around looking a certain way. I won't sit on a street corner and weave baskets just to make you trust me. I'll do what I can for as long as I can without apology and without explanation.
This is my life and I live with disabilities and there are many days that I feel like I'm rocking it.
When I visited Newfoundland recently I had the good fortune to speak with a group of entrepreneurs who were as pissed as I was to have acquired a disability - we all talked about the need to look disabled. We ended up laughing and crying over the whole mess.
If you're someone who wonders if "they're really disabled" - bite your tongue - someday it could be you. Disability does not discriminate.
I needed to get that out.
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