Tag Archives: Change

Day 1048: Change by Carrie Underwood

Don’t listen to them when they say

“You’re just a fool, just a fool to believe you can change the world”

Oh, the smallest thing can make all the difference

Love is alive, don’t listen to them when they say

“You’re just a fool, just a fool to believe you can change the world”

It’s 12 : 24 PM on day 1048 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, try to clean myself in the bathroom, pray, read Judges 7, publish my Disability of the Day feature, feed myself a boiled egg and All Bran Flakes for breakfast and tweet and Facebook about my campaign – still no luck but something’s bound to happen I’m doing my part and I know God’s doing his part even though I can’t see it people have to care that that there are more than 30 million people enslaved in the world today they just have to otherwise where’s the human in humanity.

Yesterday I heard Change by Carrie Underwood and I just fell in love with it it’s a song for anybody who has ever been told that they can’t change the world. Listen to Change by Carrie Underwood below:

Day 845

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Change is neither good nor bad it just is what it is – that’s what I keep learning 🙂

It’s 6 : 37 PM on day 845 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, go shopping for clothes for my sister to take to university – it was confirmed yesterday that my sister has been accepted into the University of Cape Town for medicine we are all SO proud of her 🙂 – prepare and publish my Disability of the Day feature, feed myself rice and curry for lunch and try to help myself in the bathroom – I keep trying to help myself in the bathroom and my mom keeps getting in the way I don’t think she gets that by “helping” me she’s helping me right into helplessness I tried to explain that to her on numerous occasions I don’t know what to do anymore if things keep going the way they are going when i’m older i’ll either be put in a home or I’ll be living with my siblings which is my worst nightmare I want to travel the world (I most want to go to Paris), help people and live a full life 🙂

Today as we were shopping for clothes for my sister to take to university it dawned on me that she was leaving I still think of her as the little girl who spat up yoghurt on my cousins I suppose that’s what happens if you’re lucky you grow up and you move away. Do you resist change?

I LOVE hearing from you feel free to leave a comment below.

Day 395

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If you want lasting change think of it as a lifestyle– that’s what I learned today 🙂

It’s 7: 23 PM on day 395 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, publish my Disability of the Day feature–I prepared it yesterday night – read Love That Sabrina: Not Very Wordless Wednesday on Love That Max, To The Author of The Anonymous Note Left On My Car Window on Special Needs Mom, Wordless Wednesday: Spotlight on Jaden on Outrageous Fortune and Wordless Wednesday: Swinging and The Power of Language on Bringing the Sunshine – they were all very good but I especially LOVED To The Author of The Anonymous Note Left On My Car Window on Special Needs Mom because it was about compassion and non-judgment not to mention it was VERY well-written 🙂 – feed myself pasta bolognaise for brunch – I used a fork and I only spilled a little I am SO happy 🙂 – listen to music, Facebook about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no luck today but Tony Hastings (@thetop10blog) made a donation yesterday– thanks again Tony I REALLY REALLY appreciate it :)– watch TV, feed myself an avocado sandwich, grilled chicken and yoghurt for dinner and brush my teeth once more.

Today I was doing something and it occurred to me that I was doing things all wrong when it came to learning how to be independent I would carve out an hour to practice typing with both hands when I should’ve been typing with both hands throughout the day –it’s kinda like when people go on a diet they eat well and exercise for the duration of the diet after which they fall back into their old bad habits – so I’ve decided to incorporate all the things I need to learn to become more independent into my life I.e. I’m no longer going to create situations to practice doing things I will practice doing them when the situations actually arise like right now for instance I am using both my hands to type. Do you want lasting change?

Are we connecting on Twitter? If not, say hi at http://twitter.com/Nisha360

If you’ve given to my cause or you can’t give now, please help me by sharing my cause with others. You can tweet about it like my friend Stan Faryna. This is the tweet he uses: @Nisha360 is a brave, smart young woman trying to make a better world for us all. Please help her do an amazing thing. http://bit.ly/hC7vOu

Stan’s very sweet for saying so, but feel free to write what reflects you best.

Thanks to all my friends out there who are helping me make my dream come true: to make a better world for all of us!

Day 309

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It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change. – Charles Darwin

It’s 7: 55 PM on day 309 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself a polony sandwich for breakfast, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no luck – chat with my Twitter friend @pfellas via Skype –it was actually fantastic I got to see some London sunshine sitting in my own dining room 🙂 – watch TV, feed myself rice and curry for lunch, go and say goodbye to my uncle and aunty who are leaving for Canada tomorrow, feed myself a McValue Meal for dinner and brush my teeth once more.

Yesterday my mother told me that our housekeeper would be replaced by the temp if she didn’t show up before August 5th – we need a housekeeper every day because someone has to help me while my parents are at work (oh the joys of having Cerebral Palsy never alone but always just a teensy bit lonely) – and although I had no problem with the temp my first thought was who’s going to deliver the sandwiches to our current housekeeper’s neighborhood every week(if you have no idea what I’m talking about refer to Virginia’s Sandwich Run) then it hit me that I could just as easily have our temp deliver the sandwiches since both her and our current housekeeper live in the same neighborhood my point is sometimes things happen that you don’t expect but that doesn’t mean you have to quit because I truly believe that there is no problem without a solution and no question without an answer. In a world where change is the only constant do you choose to adapt or die?

Are we connecting on Twitter? If not, say hi at http://twitter.com/Nisha360

Stan’s very sweet for saying so, but feel free to write what reflects you best.

Thanks to all my friends out there who are helping me make my dream come true: to make a better world for all of us!

Day 306

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Without health life is not life; it is only a state of languor and suffering – an image of death. – Buddha

It’s 10: 47 PM on day 306 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself Batura and potato for breakfast, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no luck – feed myself oranges for lunch, prepare my Kid of the Week feature for tomorrow, tweet about my campaign some more – it’s so depressing it seems like most people care more about Marc Antony and Jlo getting divorced than they do about children dying of hunger and thirst 🙁 – read What Am I Responsible For? on Spiritual Journey of a Lightworker – a very good blog post about letting go of the things you don’t control – have dinner with my extended family – we had heaps of fun playing 30 Seconds – the board game – 🙂 – and brush my teeth once more.

At 4 AM this morning I woke up with an excruciating pain in the left-hand side of my lower back and although the same thing had happened last Friday I took the fact that it happened a second time as a sign that I should change my lifestyle – replacing all the “white foods” e.g. pasta and rice with “brown foods” e.g. whole-grain pasta and brown rice eliminating carbonated drinks, chips and fast food and adding fruits and vegetables to my diet in conjunction with thirty minutes of exercise daily – and it is my greatest hope that you will follow in my footsteps more or less making your own replacements, eliminations and additions as you go along. Are you taking care of your health so that you can live life to the fullest?

Are we connecting on Twitter? If not, say hi at http://twitter.com/Nisha360

Stan’s very sweet for saying so, but feel free to write what reflects you best.

Thanks to all my friends out there who are helping me make my dream come true: to make a better world for all of us!

Day 282

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Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. – Sir Winston Churchill

It’s 7: 47 PM on day 282 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself French fries and a mango sandwich for breakfast, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – eleven days and counting without a donation – watch TV, tweet about my campaign – no luck – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, email Salt & Necter – I figured since they wrote about Oprah’s final show they would be willing to write about someone who was inspired by Oprah 🙂 – feed myself rice and curry for dinner, watch some more TV and brush my teeth once more.

Two days ago I received an email in response to my sponsorship request (if you have no idea what I’m talking about refer ‘Day 277’) and it read in part Please may you send through a formal letter with a letter head as PnP only support charity organizations and not individuals. and although I was severely bummed out at the time I now realize that real change comes from the actions of ordinary people such as you and I so I am asking you to spread the word about Virginia’s Sandwich Run and donate if you can. Do you fail at everything you do because you give up the first time you hear a no?

Are we connecting on Twitter? If not, say hi at http://twitter.com/Nisha360

Stan’s very sweet for saying so, but feel free to write what reflects you best.

Thanks to all my friends out there who are helping me make my dream come true: to make a better world for all of us!

Day 232

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Feeling guilty that you have things that other people don’t have won’t change anything– that’s what I learned today

It’s 8: 08 PM on day 232 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself a polony sandwich for breakfast, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck – continued writing my novel – I started last year and have every moment of it so far 🙂 – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, watch TV and feed myself Batura – deep fried bread – for dinner.

Today I was feeling a little hungry so I asked my mom to go get me something from the kitchen and as I was eating I felt bad because I knew that not everybody was that lucky which is why I have decided to create Virginia’s Sandwich Run – an upcoming page on this blog dedicated to our late housekeeper, Virginia, which aims to raise enough money to make 48 sandwiches a week for the people in our current housekeeper’s neighbourhood. Do you feel guilty about inequality but fail to do anything about it?

Are we connecting on Twitter? If not, say hi at http://www.twitter.com/nisha360

if you’ve given to my cause or you can’t give now, please help me by sharing my cause with others. You can tweet about it like my friend Stan Faryna. This is the tweet he uses: @Nisha360 is a brave, smart young woman trying to make a better world for us all. Please help her do an amazing thing. http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/nisha-varghese/nishavarghese

Stan’s very sweet for saying so, but feel free to write what reflects you best.

Thanks to all my friends out there who are helping me make my dream come true: to make a better world for all of us!

Day 229

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You’ve gotta cut people some slack sometimes – that’s what I learned today 🙂

It’s 9: 05 PM on day 229 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself bread and scrambled eggs for breakfast, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no luck –prepare my Kid of the Week feature – this week’s edition tugged at my heartstrings and proved to me that it’s never too late or too early to start making a difference 🙂 – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, tweet about my campaign some more – still no luck 🙁 –play some board games and card games with my siblings and guests – it was SO much fun 🙂 – feed myself a bread and jam sandwich for dinner and watch TV.

Today some people came to visit and it wasn’t until they left that it occurred to me that the adults barely spoke a complete sentence to me and in that moment I realized that people don’t know how to interact with disabled people without being awkward about it so I decided to give you some pointers on how to behave around the forgotten members of society:

Do’s and Don’ts of Dealing with Disabled People

Make eye contact
Smile
If you don’t know what interests him/her then just ask
Don’t talk about him/her talk to them. For instance, if you’re wondering if he/she wants juice ask him/her and not whoever is with him/her
Don’t make assumptions about his/her capabilities if you’re unsure about whether he/she can do something just ask

Are we connecting on Twitter? If not, say hi at http://twitter.com/Nisha360

Stan’s very sweet for saying so, but feel free to write what reflects you best.

Thanks to all my friends out there who are helping me make my dream come true: to make a better world for all of us!

Day 214

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What I am looking for is not out there … It’s in me. – Helen Kellar

It’s 9: 07 PM on day 214 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, email Firstgiving to see if I could pay the Firstgiving fees and credit merchant fees out of my own pocket – they usually get to keep 7.5% of whatever is raised but since I offered to pay a 100% of the donations will go towards building a well in Africa/India – I am so happy 🙂 – tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – @bperreault (Bobbi) made a donation – thanks again Bobbi 🙂 – listen to music while feeding myself rice and curry for lunch – it was only the second time in my entire life that I’d eaten alone it and I remembered how lonely it felt the first time so I decided to drown the silence with some noise this time around 🙂 – go to physiotherapy – my physiotherapist is truly the salt of the Earth even though physiotherapy is not the most pleasant of experiences I actually look forward to my sessions because I know that she sees me and not my disability 🙂 – watch TV, feed myself noodles and vegetable curry for dinner, tweet about my campaign some more – no further luck – watch some more TV and continue reading Boundary Lines – the second book in Engaging The Enemy by Nora Roberts.

Today as I was half watching TV and half reading my book it occurred to me that there was no reality show about teens who make a difference which is why I am asking teenagers all over the world to submit stories of their philanthropic efforts by emailing me at adventuresofme@hotmail.co.za the story that I find most inspirational will be featured on an upcoming section of this blog called Teen of the Week (Note: All who wish to be featured must send their submissions along with a picture of themselves before Saturday 12 : 30 PM GMT+2 from next week onwards). Are you looking for change everywhere but within yourself?

Day 175

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Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened. – Dr. Seuss

It’s 9: 30 PM on day 175 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself bread and jam for a snack, fix my WordPress email notification problems – the team at WordPress are the best they walked me through what I needed to do step-by-step – thanks guys 🙂 – tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, tweet about my campaign some more – still no luck – feed myself Chapati – an unleavened flatbread – and vegetable curry for dinner and watch TV.

Today lying on my bed waiting to fall asleep I had a breakdown of sorts as I thought about all the people who were no longer in my life but then I realized that the chapter of my life where everybody revolved around me was coming to a close and strangely enough I was fine with that because I knew that this was the beginning of my finest hour. Do you mourn for experiences gone by or celebrate great things yet to come? 🙂