Mark Wellman's Essay: Obstacles We Face

Obstacles We Face On Thursday, November 12 I attended the speaker Mark Wellman who made the impossible, possible. An accident while climbing the Seven Gables in the John Muir Wilderness in 1982 left him paralyzed from the waist down. His story left me speechless. I could only imagine what kind of pain he went through sitting at the bottom of the Seven Gables waiting for help while his friend went to find it. This accident didn’t stop him from doing what he loves to do. Even after the rock climbing accident, that almost kill him, he continued climbing as a paraplegic. Wellman didn’t let one accident decide his future. It was just another obstacle in the road for him to come back even stronger than he was before. Everyone faces obstacles everyday of their life and they find ways to push through them which isn’t different from the obstacles that people with disabilities face every day. I know many people who are paralyzed from the waist down who changed my life forever. They have done …show more content…
Which reminded me of the boy I was talking about earlier, whose name was Shawn, who lived a longer life than what was expected. Many people don’t realized that people with disabilities can do what people without disabilities can do, they just need the chance to do what they love. I never realized it but Shawn’s little sister treated him like any little sibling would treat the older sibling. Shawn’s little sister looked past his disability and made him do most of the things he asked her to do, by himself. It seems selfish but it made him stronger as a person. I learned that people with disabilities shouldn’t stop trying. Wellman had a way of telling his story in a happy way to the point where it seems like he isn’t disabled but another person who rock climbs. Don’t let one obstacle ruin your entire life. Disable people need to get out there and do the things that others think they can’t