Tag Archives: Family

Day 712

NEVER put yourself in a situation where you will be treated like a second-class citizen – that’s what I keep learning 🙂

It’s 2 : 29 PM on day 712 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself Batura and chicken curry for breakfast, drink coffee by myself, prepare and publish my Disability of the Day feature and listen to music – Just Go by Jesse McCartney is awesome (listen to it below)

This morning my mother, father and brother went to a memorial service leaving my sister, my grandma and I behind which is nothing unusual whenever my parents need to go somewhere they leave me with the housekeeper and one sibling I could ask to go of course but that would just result in a fight between my parents (my mom would want to take me and my dad would be like ok fine you take her I’m not going then no one would end up going) so I stopped asking although my dad still offers to take me “out” and expects me to sit in the car suffice to say I say thanks but no thanks I made a decision a long time ago that people were going to treat me well or not at all. Do you always put yourself in situations where you will be treated like a second-class citizen because you believe you don’t deserve any better?

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Day 659

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Part of growing up is understanding that how people treat you doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with you – that’s what I keep learning 🙂

It’s 8: 19 PM on day 659 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to prepare and publish my Disability of the Day feature, work, brush my teeth, feed myself Puri and potato curry for breakfast, work some more, feed myself grilled chicken for lunch. continue working, watch TV, feed myself steak, French fries and salad for dinner, brush my teeth once more and play 30 seconds – the board game – with my family

Today my father said to my mother “N” – my sister – only wants to go places with me I’ll take her to which my mother said what about Nisha who’s going to take her places my father got so irritated and said why do always bring Nisha up when I’m talking about “N” (my mom doesn’t want me to feel left out) the way he said it made me feel like he thought suggesting my sister and I be treated equally was absurd because I’m just a thing that sits around doing nothing but I keep realizing that the way people treat me has nothing to do with me. Have you grown up?

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Day 629

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Some people need to tear you down to lift themselves up– that’s what I keep learning 🙁

It’s 4 : 43 PM on day 629 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself scrambled eggs and bread for breakfast, drink Green Tea by myself, publish my Disability of the Day feature, publish my Kid of the Week feature, hang out with my family, work, listen to music – I LOVE Megan and Liz (check out some of their videos at the end of this post) – and feed myself Greek yogurt for lunch.

This afternoon my brother said to my father beaming with pride check out the well that chechi (chechi means older sister/older female cousin in my parents’ mother tongue of Malayalam) built and in response to that my father said in Malayalam they probably put up a picture of some random well then to make matters worse he said with sarcasm in his voice well done Nisha your reward is in heaven it stung a little but it didn’t change the fact that I was proud of myself and what I did. Do you take to heart the words of those who are trying to tear you down?

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

Day 625

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Just go with it– that’s what I keep learning 🙂

It’s 2 : 33 PM on day 625 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, drink Green Tea by myself, feed myself All Bran Flakes, a boiled egg and a banana for breakfast, publish my Disability of the Day feature, add Shasta’s Kickstarter widget to the sidebar of this blog – Shasta over at Outrageous Fortune wrote a children’s book called Dark & Light: A love story for babies to raise money to pay for her son Malachi’s medical expenses (Malachi is almost two and has Cerebral Palsy) please support Shasta’s Kickstarter campaign – and exercise my right hand – I cut sausage into smaller pieces using a knife with my right hand today I had the hardest time picking up the knife with my right hand I wish I had exercised more but stuff came up.

This morning I had planned out my whole day and everything was going great until my grandma had a semi-meltdown – according to doctors she has Dementia so meltdowns are to be expected – now that I look back on it I’m glad it happened because I learned what it truly means to be present while my grandma was in a state of irritation my only goal was to find out what was bothering her and fix it I wasn’t thinking about all the other things I had to do like I usually did when I was doing something. Have you learned to tear up your schedule and just go with it?

Day 620

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Things look a lot different from the other side of a situation – that’s what I keep learning 🙂

It’s 2 : 57 PM on day 620 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself Oats for breakfast, drink Green Tea by myself, publish my Disability of the Day feature, send thank you message to some who helped me build a well in Kenya – with only approximately 6 days to go to the completion of the well I thought it would be a nice thing to do to thank some people for their donations and send them a link to the project’s update page – exercise my right hand – I again cut a piece of bread into smaller pieces using a knife with my right hand I should have using a fork and knife down by Sunday 🙂 – and feed myself rice and curry for lunch.

Today spending time with my grandma who can’t speak clearly or remember my name – she had a Cerebral Hemorrhage last August which left her speech slurred and before that she started showing signs of Dementia – I finally understood how my family must feel around me you want so badly to “fix” the ones that you love and the fact that you can’t leaves you feeling so helpless I am going to tell my family that it’s okay that they can’t rid me of Cerebral Palsy because I think they really need to hear it. Has being on the other side of a particular situation made you a more compassionate human being?

Day 618

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What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger

Stand a little taller

Doesn’t mean I’m lonely when I’m alone.

–Lyrics from the song Stronger written by
Jörgen Elofsson, Ali Tamposi, David Gamson and Greg Kurstin and sung by Kelly Clarkson

It’s 3 : 48 PM on day 618 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, drink Green Tea by myself, feed myself Oats for breakfast, exercise my right hand – I cut pieces of my sandwich into smaller pieces using a knife with my right hand just a few more practice sessions and I’ll be able to eat with a fork and knife I am SO PROUD of me – and publish my Disability of the Day feature.

This morning I had a bit of meltdown my mother told me I only had five minutes in the bathroom because she was late for work when I tried to negotiate for a bit more time she got irritated and said for the millionth time in my lifetime I’ve been suffering for the past 10 to 20 years to which I said getting choked up if you feel this way imagine how I feel I’m the one trapped in my own body then when I got out of the bathroom my dad who usually doesn’t speak more than a couple of sentences to me daily asked why are you crying which really made cry but now that a few hours have passed since the incident I realize that I can either be bitter or better because of my parents and I choose to be better I will never blame someone for something they have no control over because my mother blames me for her suffering and I will never discriminate against anyone because I feel like my father discriminates against me. Has what you’ve been through in the past made you bitter or better?

Day 615

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Appreciate the way things are today because it won’t always be this way– that’s what I keep learning 🙂

It’s 4 : 14 PM on day 615 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself Greek yogurt and banana for breakfast, drink Green Tea by myself, publish my Disability of the Day feature, publish my Kid of the Week feature, hang out with my brother – we sang along to Fireflies by Owl City (see music video below) among other songs it was great fun 🙂 – and feed myself yogurt and Batura for lunch.

Today I wanted to be by myself for a while so I left the dining room and went to my bedroom I didn’t count on my brother following me there irritated I asked him why did you follow me in that moment it occurred to me that I should enjoy him following me around like a little puppy and hugging me all the time because pretty soon he would embarrassed to be seen with me. Do you appreciate the way things are today because you know that it won’t always be this way?

Day 614

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Perseverance is the greatest thing you can teach a child – that’s what I learned today 🙂

It’s 5 : 11 PM on day 614 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself scrambled eggs and a slice of bread for breakfast with a fork and knife – I am SO PROUD of myself 🙂 – drink Green Tea by myself, publish my Disability of the Day feature, watch my brother practice making an origami box and feed myself Greek yogurt for lunch

This morning my brother was practicing making an origami box so that he could do it properly in class on Monday and every time he got frustrated I would say don’t give up you can do this I know you can eventually after a few tries he did do it I was (and am) so proud that he kept going even when he felt like quitting I hope I have taught him that you can’t fail unless you quit. Do you grab every opportunity to teach the children in your life perseverance?

Day 421

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Trying to change people’s perception of you is impossible – that’s what I learned today 🙁

It’s 7: 25 PM on day 421 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself a boiled egg for breakfast, prepare and publish my Disability of the Day tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no luck – work on this blog, feed myself rice and curry for lunch, continue working on this blog, feed myself spaghetti
with sauce for dinner and finish working on this blog.

This morning my mother walked into the dining room, saw that I had eaten the boiled egg that was on the table and asked who handed it to you to which I replied I took it myself my legs may not work…but your stomach sure does she finished I was SO offended especially since I was going to say before she interrupted me I took it myself my legs may not work but my hands do but now I realize that it’s not worth being offended over because no matter what I say or do my parents will always believe that all I do is wake up, watch TV, eat and sleep. Do you waste your life trying to get people to see you the way you see yourself?

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 419

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Each one of us has a sixth sense– that’s what I learned today.

It’s 8: 29 PM on day 419 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to prepare and publish my Disability of the Day feature, publish my Kid of the Week feature, brush my teeth, feed myself baked beans for breakfast, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no luck – work on this blog–the videos that were linked to my old blog were not in the correct format for this blog so I had to fix all the videos one by one – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, finish working on this blog, feed myself pancakes with coconut and sugar for dinner, brush my teeth once more and pray with my family.

This morning the phone rang and just instinctively I knew it was going to bad news I was right it was my uncle calling to say my grandma had another seizure (it was minor and although weak she’s fine) it just goes to show that we as human beings are capable of more than we can explain. Do you strengthen your intuition by tuning into it on a daily bases?

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!