Sunday, June 30, 2013

The Little Things in Life


Hello Readers! I hope you are all having a good summer. I am definitely having a fantastic one. Instead of me telling you about my summer however, I decided to postpone that and tell you that at the end of the summer. Here is my real entry.

Often times in life, we overlook things or take for granted what we do have especially when we are in a frustrating situation. But then when something little happens in your life that makes a big difference, you are so happy and thrilled. I have a perfect example of this. As I told you last month, Tori and I went to the Spring to Dance Festival in St. Louis. My chair was beginning to serge or jerk as I like to say. Then, it would stop for a couple of days, and it is still doing this one month later. We had no idea where the source was coming from, there was nothing in my wheels that seemed to be the source of the problem. All of us at the Purple Pad were perplexed, what could this be? And every time the wheelchair company came to fix other things with my chair I forgot to tell them about the jerking because it would seem to go away. Kind of like when you feel sick and then on the day of the doctor’s appointment you don’t feel as sick as you did when you made the appointment.

One day on, one day off, this was getting tiring and frustrating. So I finally put my foot down the other day, and I said you know what regardless I’m going to call the wheelchair company. When I called the wheelchair company, they said we can come out in two weeks, but I have a better alternative for you. The wheelchair representatives will be at the Abilities Expo, which is an expo where people with disabilities come together to learn and to buy products and services that will hopefully better their life with a disability. Of course, I said yes and the next day Tori and I drove to Schaumburg to the Abilities Expo where sure enough, Permobile’s booth was right in the front. After a lot of moving around, question answering, and puzzled technicians, they came to the realization that my gears on my wheelchair needed to be fixed. They said it would take a few weeks and I was like “Okay, I’ve waited this long, what does two or three weeks matter at this point?”

But then the best news came! They said that they were going to come and install the gears for me free of charge! I was shocked and thrilled by their generosity! This was a true lesson for me in patience, community, and the importance of really realizing that little things in life make a big difference! Once again, I will be rolling and dancing smoothly very soon thanks to these compassionate people. In about three days one of my favorite holidays will be happening. For most of you advid readers, you probably know what it is because I have woven this topic throughout my blog post every year it comes about. But for those of you who don’t know what I am talking about, it is the Fourth of July. When people ask me, “What is the reason?” Every year I come up with a little twist to the answer, but the underlining message of the answer stays the same. Freedom is a great thing, and I am so happy that we have a holiday to celebrate the freedom that we worked so hard as citizens to attain. Remember, that every human being has their own form of independence. So in honor of this month’s blog, even though I have seen the fireworks many times in my life, and gone to many parades with my family in the past, I’m going to go back to the basics. I’m going to enjoy the little things in life and I hope you do too. So just when you think hope is gone, don’t give up. Enjoy your own type of freedom, with a little red, white, and blue.

-Jessi