Gretta’s Story….

What is disability to you? How would you define the way your disability affects your day to day life? If you have been living with a disability for a long time I am sure that you find yourself asking these questions frequently. But what does your disability really mean to you? How can you think positively about your life?

Hi! I’m Gretta and it is an absolute honour to become a regular blogger for Caring Humanity. To tell you a little bit about myself, I am a twenty nine year old woman from Western Sydney who loves giving anything and everything a go. Currently, I am learning how to scuba dive, I have competed in two horse riding competitions with Riding for the Disabled, been Indoor Skydiving multiple times and have been skiing in three different countries which is my absolute passion. While enjoying these very active activities, I also have a Bachelor of Arts degree, three awesome jobs, own a blog called ‘On Our Own Tracks’, have just moved out of home into an amazing apartment and more importantly have the most caring family and friends. On top of this, I have a tiny bit of Cerebral Palsy which affects my ability to speak, to walk and my fine motor skills. The reason that I like to refer to my amount of Cerebral Palsy as a tiny bit is because I really don’t see my disability as limiting at all. I have an amazing life.

So, how did I really get to where I am today? Seeing the positives in my life despite me having a disability. Well for a start, I was lucky enough to have a family that really understood disability, so I went to a mainstream school and was brought up thinking that I wasn’t ‘special’ and that I needed to be extra outgoing and compassionate so that I would be treated just like others in the world around me. I also had access to the other side of the coin, I saw that some of my friends with much more severe disabilities than me were dealing with so many more struggles and yet always had a smile on their face. I believe that having access to these two experiences is the reason why I feel so good about my disability today.

I am lucky enough to be the youngest of three in a caring, loving family. My mum is a highly qualified teacher with ample experience within special education while my dad worked in I.T. This was the main reason I was able to go into a mainstream school, this really shaped who I am today. While remembering that I wasn’t special because I had a disability I also began to understand that there were other students in my classes that were dealing with much worse situations than me. Along with this, I also found that when I pushed myself with my education it provided me with so me opportunities with my communication and problem solving skills, which I still use daily,

So, please remember that is just my opinion of disability. I do acknowledge that there’s all types of personalities, pasts and even types of disabilities that can affect the way that each individual sees their own life. So, my personal view is if you view your life according to what you have and what problem solving skills you have learnt from the obstacles you come across you have the best chance of appreciating life for the beauty that it is.