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Day 80

A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires – Marcus Aurelius.

It’s 7: 21 PM on day80 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself All-Bran Flakes for breakfast, learn how to calculate Exact Equations – I wish life was more like Math where every problem had a clearly defined solution(s) but I guess that’s too much to ask – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, exercise for 30 minutes – getting anyone to help me was a mission and a half – my mother was tired, my father was nowhere to be found, my sister was texting and my brother was eating – so I ended up having to exercise by myself – you know what they say want something done you have to do it yourself 🙂 – and started reading Conversations with Myself by Nelson Mandela – President Obama wrote the most moving forward I’ve ever read – I got the sense that President Obama has a great deal of respect for Nelson Mandela – as do I 🙂

Different people have different aspirations some people aspire to wealth and fame while others aspire to peace and happiness and if you’d asked me yesterday what I aspired to I wouldn’t have been able to tell you but in reading the forward written by President Obama I have come to realize that I aspire to Nelson Mandela’s exemplary leadership qualities. What do you aspire to? 🙂

Day 79

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Everybody is HIV positive until proven otherwise – Unknown.

It’s 7: 40 PM on day 79 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself Oats for breakfast, created a Jango account – I really recommend that website if your a music lover – it allows you to create radio station and only plays songs by your favourite artists – learn how to calculate Separable Differentials – it was so easy hopefully I’ll finish the chapter by tomorrow 🙂 – feed myself rice and curry for lunch and exercise for 30 minutes – my legs where so still today that they would go straight no matter how hard my mother pressed on them – no two days are the same I suppose hopefully tomorrow my legs will be a lot more cooperative 🙂

Approximately 5.7 million people in South Africa are living with HIV and although the rate of new infections has dropped there are still new diagnoses being made every day and today being World Aids Day I would like to make two things VERY clear – firstly, you CANNOT contract HIV through touching, hugging or kissing and secondly NOBODY who chooses to have unprotected sex is immune from contracting HIV – black, white or blue HIV does not discriminate. Do you know your status? 🙂

Day 78

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Gratitude – a positive emotion or attitude in acknowledgment of a benefit that one has received or will receive.

It’s 7: 00 PM on day 78 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself Oats for breakfast, learn how to calculate Differentials – when I finish this chapter I will have finished the Math syllabus – I am SO happy 🙂 – wheel myself to the bed – my first impulse was to ask my sister to do it for me but in the end I did it by myself because I realized that no one likes a helpless leach LOL 🙂 – feed myself rice and curry for lunch and exercise for 30 minutes – today’s session was surprisingly pleasant I should watch a movie while exercising more often 🙂

Today my brother came to me and said I’m really feeling sorry for myself and I asked him why and he said I have to run around the field three times tomorrow and I said with no self-pity in my voice at least you can run and I guess that’s my message to everyone don’t complain about all the things you have to do just be grateful that you can do them. Do you live in a constant state of gratitude or misery? 🙂

Day 77

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You strike a woman; you strike a rock – Zulu proverb.

It’s 7: 04 PM on day 77 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself All-Bran Flakes for breakfast, learn how to calculate Integrals with Substitution – I finally understand it and can now move on to the next chapter – YAY for me! 🙂 – peeled a banana – made a huge stain on my t-shirt – attempted to take off my stained t-shirt and put on a clean one – I got my head out but our housekeeper had to help me get my arms out of the sleeves and put on a clean t0shirt when the housekeeper was helping me change I thought to myself normal people can change in and out of their clothes without thinking twice about it this is so unfair – feed myself rice and curry for lunch and exercise for 10 minutes –I am SO tired {yawn}

I have never been an abused woman but every time my father pinned my mother against the wall and raised his hand to her I felt like someone had placed a hot iron on my heart and even though it doesn’t hurt anymore I still bear the scars of my tortured childhood and that’s why I am in full support of the 16 Days of Activisms Against Gender Violence Campaign. Have you ever been burned by someone that you loved?

Day 76

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Man, alone, has the power to transform his thoughts into physical reality; man, alone, can dream and make his dreams come true – Napoleon Hill.

It’s 8: 32 PM on day 76 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself Chapati – an unleavened flatbread – and Chicken Curry for breakfast, spend time with my cousins – I was a bit sad that this was the last time that my cousin – the youngest of the two – would come shopping with us as a single woman but as the saying goes if you love them you’ll set them free 🙂 – feed myself KFC Sprinkle Pops – tiny ball-shaped chicken nuggets with different flavours on it – for lunch, wheel myself out of the dining room and into the sitting room where I wheeled myself to the centre of the room and touch the coffee table – it won’t be long until I am able to wheel myself everywhere I just KNOW it 🙂 and exercise for 10 minutes – it was my sister’s turn to help me exercise today and she nearly broke my legs LOL 🙂

A few weeks ago I was reading an article about Nelson Mandela’s new book Conversions with Myself and I thought to myself I want this book and today my cousins bought it for me as a Christmas present – they took us to the mall and asked us to pick out anything we wanted and Nelson Mandela’s book was the first book I saw in the book store so I took it and it was only when I got home that I remembered that I wanted to buy that book all along. Have you ever transformed your thoughts into physical reality? 🙂

Day 75

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“Where there is a will, there is a way. If there is a chance in a million that you can do something, anything, to keep what you want from ending, do it. Pry the door open or, if need be, wedge your foot in that door and keep it open.” – Pauline Kael.

It’s 5: 15 PM on day 75 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself Sweet Potatoes and Yoghurt for breakfast, spend two hours tweeting about my Clean Water For All Campaign – I know people want to give but obviously I’m asking the wrong people 🙁 – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, wheel myself around the dining room and into the sitting room – at first I just wanted to make it to the fridge – took a little break drank a glass of water by myself – after which I began to wheel myself to the first chair to my left and then the second and pretty soon I’d come full circle and I thought to myself I’ve come this far why not go all the way and wheel myself to the sitting room and so I did – I’m freaking AWESOME!!! 🙂 – and exercise for 30 minutes – my hamstrings were killing me and I was sweating like a pig – it wasn’t a pretty sight – kinda like my life really LOL 🙂

Do you remember a few weeks ago I was in tears because my parents wouldn’t take me to my cousin’s wedding in India? Well thanks to the wonders of modern technology and a brilliant suggestion from my friend @DianaRusso I might get to go to the wedding after all – I am going to ask her to ask somebody else to set up a high-speed internet connection and a laptop with a webcam on it at both her engagement and her wedding – I know it won’t be the same but I didn’t want to go to the wedding just to take photographs with her I just want to see her tie the knot and know that she’s happy and if this works out I will get to do exactly that – I made a decision about 3 years ago that I wouldn’t let my disability or other people’s prejudges against me stop me from doing something I really wanted to do and this situation is just a prime example of that 🙂 Is your circumstance stopping you from doing something you really want to do? – If the front door closes try coming in through the back 🙂

Day 74

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Knowledge is power – Sir Francis Bacon.

It’s 6: 31 PM on day 74 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself a Banana for breakfast, memorize the common formulae in my notes – I think I’ve got it down pat 🙂 – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, practised wheeling myself around the house – today I got to The sitting room and tomorrow I’ll get a little further and pretty soon I’ll be able to wheel myself everywhere without any assistance I just KNOW it 🙂 – and went to physiotherapy – I LOVE my physiotherapist I feel like she’s the only person on the planet who sees me for my soul rather than my body – I remember once my mother said to someone this is Nisha my sick daughter and my jaw dropped to the floor – literally LOL 🙂

Today morning I took the plunge and had my blood sugar levels tested not because I exhibited any of the symptoms but because I felt like I should know what was going on with my own body and I’m happy to report that my blood sugar level was 5 – 4 to 8 is the normal range – after I took the test which took less than 20 seconds out of my day I felt a great sense of relief and with that said I would like to ask all of you to get your blood sugar tested either at home – you can buy a portable blood sugar monitor at your local pharmacy – or you can ask your doctor to run a simple blood test because at the end of the day what you don’t know can KILL you. Will you follow in my footsteps and get your blood sugar levels tested? 🙂

Day 73

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First time victim second time volunteer – Gavin de Becker.

It’s 7: 12 PM on day 73 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself Oats for breakfast, learn how to calculate Definite Integrals using Trigonometric Identities – trust me it was as boring as it sounds LOL 🙂 – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, and exercise for 10 minutes – I was crying the whole time thinking about the fact that my family won’t take me to India for my cousin’s wedding just because I’m on a wheelchair – I’ve really tried to get over it I really have but I’ve pictured being at my cousin’s wedding ever since I was five 🙁

Today as I was staring at the lavender outside our dining room window it occurred to me that the only reason my father was able to hurt me was because I allowed him to by waking up every day and hoping that today would be the day that he finally realized the error of his ways and came to apologize but now I realize that that day may never come and as hard as it for me I’ve made my peace with it. Are you allowing someone you love to hurt you? 🙂

Day 72

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Meditate – empty the mind of thoughts, or concentrate the mind on one thing, in order to aid mental or spiritual development, contemplation, or relaxation.

It’s 6: 49 PM on day 72 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself Oats for breakfast, tweeted people about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no one has donated so far today but hey $2 027 is way better than $0 🙂 – learn how to do Substitutions with Definite Integrals – it’s simple actually just replace the numbers with variables – peeled and ate a banana – I wish somebody had told me to use my wrist rather than my fingernails while peeling it maybe than I wouldn’t have wasted an hour of my life doing something that I could have just as easily have done in five minutes LOL 🙂 – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, practise wheeling myself from the couch to the centre of the sitting room – it took me quite a long time to do it but I think that was because I was watching Oprah while doing it – and exercise for five minutes – my muscles are a lot less stiff than they were yesterday – I feel AWESOME!!!! 🙂

I used to think that meditation constituted of sitting cross-legged Indian-style and saying Om but yesterday as I was laying in bed listening to the sound of the crickets I realized that meditation is anything that brings stillness to your life. What do you do on a daily bases to bring stillness to your life? 🙂

Day 71

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To feel much for others and little for ourselves; to restrain our selfishness and exercise our benevolent affections, constitute the perfection of human nature – Adam Smith.

It’s 6: 47 PM on day 71 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself All-Bran Flakes for breakfast, learn the formula to find the area under any graph –∫_a^b▒〖f(x)dx=F(b)- F(a)〗 – help myself in the bathroom – I debated with myself about whether to write this or leave it out and some of you make feel that this is too much information but at the beginning of this journey I promised myself that I would record every success, failure and embarrassing moment so as to inspire the citizens of the world to be better than they think they are 🙂 – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, and exercise for 30 minutes –I could sense that my mother wasn’t being present while helping me exercise and as a result I became increasingly irritated and my muscles got tighter – overall it wasn’t a particularly pleasurable experience – it never is – but today was especially awful 🙁

As you may or may not know Oprah Winfrey is calling for an end to distracted driving where she is asking people to sign the No Phone Zone pledge agreeing not to text or talk on the phone while driving and even though I don’t drive I fully support this initiative because at the end of the day NOTHING that anybody has to say to you is worth killing somebody’s mother, father, sister or brother and so with that said I would like to ask all of you to take the pledge and spread the word. Will you help Oprah and I change the world one driver at a time? 🙂