FINDING YOUR VOICE
I’ve always been some combination of sassy and shy. People who don’t know me well are often surprised when I finally voice my opinion. I like to observe what is happening around me. Often quietly. Then, suddenly speak up with some base when I see a pattern of wrong.
My experiences over the last 10 months of fighting to walk, to heal and to shake off the stares I often get as an amputee, have certainly made me stronger. Along with that, has come a louder voice. I have learned to be my own self advocate in many aspects of my life. My insurance carrier had no choice but to hear my voice time and time again when I said they wrongly denied a prosthetic I should have been approved for. I spoke about what I felt was best for me after getting a second opinion and made a change to a different surgeon for my amputation, despite him being two hours away and not in the comfort zone I had formed with the medical group my first surgeon worked with. I stepped up at work after my initial recovery and focused on succeeding in a new role with endless challenges despite the ones I was facing with my own body. I educated myself more on what is going on with our planet and how we can help in the smallest ways.
I hate to say this but sometimes it takes us falling into a position of struggle to really see the ways we can and should be helping. We are human and therefore flawed. Our own selfishness can get in the way of us opening our eyes to the world. There are people struggling far more than we are and there is ALWAYS something that can be done. There is ALWAYS something to be said and learned, and acted upon. As we prepare to cast our ballots next month, I hope you too will educate yourself and speak up for what you believe is right. How you think people should be treated, how you think our planet should be treated, and what you believe the morals of our country should be. Don’t take a side, take a stand and stand tall... like my fiddle leaf fig tree did before I went on vacation and didn’t water it for a week...
