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| Answering Questions | ||
They ask “Why do you walk like that?” ‘Cause the wiggle is just my thing. If anybody asks, I just say this is how I walk and all that. This is how I was born and I’m glad. -Olivia, 11 years old What would you do if you could walk? My friends ask, “Ok, what would you do if you could walk?” The first thing I would probably do for about a week would be to climb up and sit in a tree and just write a book. That’s about it. -Robert, 21 years old The thing I’ve noticed about people today is that people aren’t very opened-minded. When people first see me, I get a lot of weird stares. I’ve got people staring at me all the time. When I go to the mall, I have at least 50 to 60 people staring at me. Before I was eight years old, I hated people staring at me. I was like, “Why are you staring at me? Stop!” It doesn’t really bother me now. What bothers me is that if you are going to stare at me for 10 minutes and you really want to ask a question, and you don’t. Then I get agitated. I actually went up to somebody in the mall once and asked them what they wanted to ask me. That person asked me, “How many miles have you gone in your chair?” And I’m like, “I don’t know, but I’m sure I could figure it out.” -Robert, 21 years old People talk to you slow all the time. And it’s not cool. So, I answer them in a foreign language. On my first day of school, my aide talked to me really, really, really slowly when she first met me. I didn’t answer her at all because if you won’t talk to me civil, I just won’t answer you. And if I do answer you, it’s not polite. -Robert, 21 years old People with questions don’t bother me. Ignorant people bother me, not stupid people, because there is a difference between stupid and ignorant. Stupid is you can’t do it. Ignorant is you can, you just choose not to. -Robert, 21 years old If they ask, “What’s the matter?” I just say that, my braces help me walk better. That’s basically all that I say. - Madison, 10 years old If somebody asks me, I just say “Oh yeah, I have this brace because it straightens me out and it helps me walk better.” And if they are really belligerent, I just say I wear it “because I’m trying to make a fashion statement.” - Ruby, 15 years old It’s more of a problem for the adults than the kids. If it’s a kid, I’ll just kind of ignore it because you’ve got to choose your battles. And I really just don’t want to get into scrap with the popular kids. And then when it comes to adults, it’s like well, they’ve grown up in a different time period where people like me were sent to institutions. Yeah, but I don’t really confront them, no. If I have a chance to, I will. Like if they said something really rude and belligerent, I will. - Ruby, 15 years old
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Hospital Boston Department of Psychiatry. All Rights Reserved. The information on this website should not be taken as medical advice, which can only be given to you by your personal health care professional. Updated:April 26, 2009 |
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