Introduction

This is a story about my life. Who am I? Well, I would say “no one special”, because I am just a plain everyday person. My life has been a little strange, a lot of pain and a few wonderful people. So…why would a plain, nobody special person write about themselves? Because I was born with a birth defect & I think more people should be aware of other people’s feelings. People are so cruel to each other anymore, and the only reason is because they are different. EVERYONE is different…That’s the way God made us! We all have different combinations of hair color, skin color, eye color, heights…It is different for everyone. If we don’t make fun of people because of their eye color then why do we tease them about their physical or mental disabilities? Is it because we were raised to be afraid of them or simply because we haven’t been acclimated to these types of social behaviors?

Parents cannot just say “Don’t talk to people that are different from you, because you don’t know what they will do”. Yes parents really do this, they tell their children to be quiet or pull them away when they are naturally curious. I don’t know if it is because the parents are afraid of offending me or think it is contagious. Well what offends me is the parent’s reactions and the looks of pity or stares. Children can be excused because they haven’t been taught how to react to these situations, and are curious about things that are out of the normal range of their lives.

I would rather have someone ask about my deformity, then to whisper behind my back. People need to be exposed to handicapped individuals more, especially children. Only in recent years have parents started putting children with disabilities in public schools more regularly. When children are not around others that have deformities or disabilities they do not know how to deal with them. Then when they get to school and they see one person that stands out…they are “freaks”. Only when they realize that there are many “different” people will they see that there is nothing to be cruel about.