First thing, I should probably explain the name of this blog: it comes from one of my favorite quotes ever. "Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them you're a mile away, and you have their shoes."

This post is partially inspired by a good friend of mine, the blog post that inspired this rant is here: http://thatcrazycripplechick.blogspot.com/2011/06/redefining-inclusion.html


Why do I want somebody to steal my shoes? Because there are so few out there who really know what it's like to be me. I've written some poetry about this recently, but I'm still not sure if that would properly get the point across. Simply put, you don't need to experience my disability to experience my situation. Of course I can't tell anybody to go "get a disibility", but I can say everyone should try living with the circumstances of my disability. I know there aren't many who would willingly do this, but I wish everyone would. If you're up for the challenge, here's how to do it. First, hide your car keys; the moment you start driving, you've done more than I can at this point. Next, if you have a job, you can't continue because you're already ahead of me. I know you might say "I have a job, but now I can't drive to work." Ok, can you take a bus or a train? If so, you're still "failing" at your attempt to be like me. So now we've taken away transportation and money. If you want to hang out with your friends, you'll need both of these things. Good friends will give you a ride if they really are good friends, no doubt. There's a limit to that, too though...especially with gas prices being so high. Try to get a friend who lives an hour away to come pick you up and watch what happens. So by now, if you HAD a job, you've surely lost it because you never went to work. So here you are, no job, no money, and no way to travel further than you can walk. By the way, that's limited too; there's no way for me to put a definite number on this because there are so many varied situations, but let's just say you should take your normal walking distance for any situation and cut it at least in half. At this point, you're probably thinking "awesome, now I'm pretty much stuck". If you got this far, you're very close. The next thing to throw into the mix is someone constantly bugging you, saying things like "get a job", or "you have no motivation", basically, somebody to constantly kill any positive thought you could ever have. Also, these are the same people who say they can't help you when you ask them to drive you around to find a new job. The next thing you'll hear is possibly the worst part of it all...surely someone will say "you sit at home all day, no job, no bills, no worries, you should be the happiest person on the planet." The easiest flaw to see here is that the "no worries" thing is a lie. I get called lazy all the time too. Lazy means you refuse to be active. I want to be active but it is very difficult because of all these factors. With this unused energy, it makes it difficult to sleep. Everyone knows what it's like to go stir-crazy; imagine feeling that way 5 days a week and having to depend on others to help you out of it. If being in this situation doesn't make you connect with where I am right now, maybe I'm the sane one and you're crazy.

The blog post that inspired this is about how to include kids with disabilities in the classroom. The goal of the principle of inclusion in the classroom is to prevent someone's disability from affecting their learning. I'm not a teacher, I'm sure she can explain true inclusion better than I can, but it inspired me. Try reversing the principle of inclusion. Don't try to hide or work around disabilities, instead, force people without disabilities to experience them for an extended period of time. Instead of "including" people with disabilities into the "able" world, take all those without disabilities and include them in the world of living with a disability. When you've seen this side of the world, maybe you'll think twice before you ever ask anyone with a disability about why they're depressed.