I am Forty-One years old, and yes I still live with my Dad not because I can’t take care of myself, and not because I can’t support myself financially, but because it’s expensive to live here in NY.  It’s not a cheap place to live out here on Long Island.  My dad is here, and I take care of him and help him out when he needs it.  Though like people in the past who told me I would never make it in College.  I hear people who say to others that they don’t think that I can support myself, or who is going to help Dorsey when my Dad is gone.  I am probably not the only one with a disability who gets told this, and I know that there are some out there who apparently can’t fully support themselves on their own.  So I am writing this to those of us who can, and who can live on our own, or who want to.  This may sound like a rant, and in some respects, it may be.

Though I want to encourage those of us with a disability to go with your heart and do whatever it is that you feel like you want to do with your life.  If you’re going to live on your own, go for it.  If you’re going to get that executive job, at that company go for it,  if you want to run that 26.5-mile marathon, and only have one leg, or maybe no leg’s then don’t let your disability stop you from doing what it is that you want to do with your life.  I have a friend of mine who has the same disability that I do, that wants to go and climb mountains, I have no idea how he is going to do it, but I’m not going to tell him no.  Because if I told him no I would be doing the same thing that others have done to me, and I don’t want to be that person who says no and hinders them from fulfilling their dream and seeing the potential that they have in their life.  So to those of us who have been told that we wouldn’t be able to do something in our lives, forget what people have told you, and go out and fulfill the potential that you see when you look in the mirror.  Go out and do whatever it is that your heart tells you to do.  I believe in God, and I know that God has great things in store for my life, and He has the same things in your life as well, as long as you believe in Him.  Remember, However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” — the things God has prepared for those who love him– 1 Corinthians 2:9.