Allison Cover
Misericordia University
Introduction
There are many reasons why I chose to write about spina bifida for this paper. One reason being that November is spina bifida awareness month so I thought it was fitting. Also, I have first-hand experience with children that are living with spina bifida. I am a two-year camp counselor at an amazing camp called Camp Spifida. At this camp, I had the opportunity to meet and work with a little girl named Sarah. This is Sarah’s story and how she is living with spina bifida.
About Sarah
Sarah is a ten-year-old girl that was diagnosed with spina bifida myelomeningocele at birth. From her mother’s perspective, hearing this news in the hospital came as a complete …show more content…
All of these things put a smile on her face and bring out the best in her. She is able to forget about all the hard times in life while she’s with these people.
Problems
The major problem that Sarah focused on while I was talking to her was that she does not like when other people talk badly about her condition. She was telling me story during our phone call and she said that the main question she is always asked it “Don’t you hate being in a wheelchair?” When I asked her how she responds to a question like that, her answer brought tears to my eyes and was something I will never forget. She told me,
No, I don’t hate being in a wheelchair. I don’t hate my disability. God made me this way for a reason and I’m going to find out what that reason is. Okay so I might not be able to do things the way “normal” people do, so what? It doesn’t mean I can’t find a different way to do them. People look at me and tell me they feel sorry for me, which I don’t get. I’m honestly so proud of who I am and with the disability I have. It may have closed some doors, but it’s opened new ones that I couldn’t have gotten if I was able bodied. I never would have gone to camp and met you or the other amazing friends I