As a handicapped person, I am faced with many obstacles to try to overcome. For example, I have trouble getting doors opened at restaurants or stores. I have to rely on the kindness of strangers or otherwise whoever takes me has to handle the door and the wheelchair at the same time. I usually use a walker at home, but I use a wheelchair whenever we go out. I even have trouble in public restrooms reaching the soap or paper towels because they are too high or too far to reach.

The doors are usually too heavy for me to open or close myself in public bathrooms.

This is why I miss out on fun activities that aren’t walker or wheelchair accessible. We were invited to a neighbor’s Halloween party and we declined because of these reasons. I hate missing these activities because I am a very social person.

I have gone to close friends’ houses and found the walker is too bulky to mingle with other people. Also I can only stand on my feet for a limited time before I get too tired. When I take my wheelchair, my neck kills me looking up the whole time because everyone is usually standing the majority of the time.

Another challenge is using the bathroom at someone’s house because I have to use my cane of which I am not very stable or I use counters to move around inside the room. I frequently get tangled up in their bathroom rugs. I have decided to look at these as challenges that I can overcome.

I have decided the world isn’t always kind to the disabled even though it is much better than before. I do my best to get around because I don’t want to always stay home.