the choices are in your hands

 Your transition meeting is when all the big choices are placed on the table, the choices that are considered the critical of support. I remember mine, it was my Medicaid Service Coordinator, my parents, the head of Special Education Department, and the teachers. I have never been one to go with the crowd.  I like to be the one to stand out. Why do something just because you are expected to?  Why not be the voice that changes things to make things better instead of accepting them?

There are things that we are forced to accept, there are things that we should never accept and then there are things that you might have to meet in the middle to move forward.  Sometimes people may not agree with you and what you think and what you are doing.  They may have doubts and imagine something different for you. But at the end of the day it is about what you want for yourself, not about what others feel that is best for you. Your visions can change, but your passion and drive of what keeps you motivated should never go away.

The things we do happen for a reason.  There are many forks in the road and sometimes we need to choose the road less travelled and we might have to go down that road alone and pick the people that will support us in the best possible way they know how to.

There were two roads I could have gone down at this meeting.  One road would have led me to go to a vocational school and graduate with a certificate of completion get have a full time job at the age of age 18 years old, but I shocked them all the staff and said “No”!  I don’t want that; I want to go away to School to further my education!  With confusing looks on their faces, the Special Ed staff looked at my parents and asked are you really going to support her with what she wants to do?  Yes, we are my dad said.  She wants to go away to collage we are going to support her decision and she has the right to a full high school diploma instead of just a certificate.  The staff pointed out that there were going to lots of bumps in the road and the likelihood of someone with a disability to go on and be successful and live on their own was going to be very and most likely not going to happen!

Yes, some of that is true.  However, if I had gone down the road where everyone else had gone, I would be living closer to my parents with limited mobility. It was at age 16 when I started making those choices. Most of my classmates did not move away and live pretty close or with their families. You have to make the choices that are best for you not because everyone else is doing it or it is easier.  But some choices could be great for the short team, but what about the long term and the future?  Isn’t it important to try and get as close to where you want to be as possible?  Its because of all the decisions that I made that I am where I am and not settling for where the people expect me to be.

I still to this day get a lot of stereotypes.  I guess that’s what you get for battling the odds and never accepting and listening to people who base things on what they have seen in the movies or read in the books. There is a lot to be learned if you take the time to listen to someone and get to know what their wants and dreams are. Then tell them they can do anything that you put their mind to just never give up. There are things that we might just do as a hobby where we will find our most success in. Success is not measured by how much money you have or how big of a title you have, its about doing the things that make you happy the most and the people that support them.