The heart carries the feet

I have cerebral palsy (CP), my left side including my eye is affected the most. I have been through a lot of treatments and surgeries since birth. . I went to a normal school in the beginning but soon switched to a special needs school because I needed regular physiotherapy which wasn’t provided in other schools. I was bullied both in my school and college days. After my biggest surgery in 2010, while I was still studying, it took me 5 years to recover. I didn't know how to cope with my emotions and bullies. I felt sad and would cry all the time. It was all too much for me. I was referred to a great Psychiatric, who not only diagnosed me with severe depression but helped me come out of it as well. She made me realize I'm worth living in this world, and worth being loved. . I then decided to enroll for an Associate degree at City University. I felt pressurized and misfit soon after because of the behavior of my fellow students. My delay in completing assignment was taken as my inability. My class fellows couldn’t apprehend I needed more time to complete the work than them. I'd often get crude remarks like, ‘why should we share our credit with you when you do half the work’. I understand Associate degrees are fast-paced and demanding and everyone felt I was slowing them down. Regardless of my eagerness to learn, I had to drop out in my 2nd year due to a sudden spinal injury, which resulted in complete immobility. Last October I lost my speech as well as 90% of sight. . I am glad that the darkest phase of my life is over, and I am on the path of recovery and self-discovery now. I can go out and meet friends for lunch/dinner, movies and shopping on my wheelchair on my own. Once in a while, I get blurred vision in the sun, but otherwise, I have no issues going out. I am grateful to my family who has stuck with me through thick and thin. They have taken care of me and loved me the best they could. As a child, I wished they hugged me a little more and said they loved me a little more, but I think it’s the Asian culture where we shy away from showing too much affection to our loved ones. I am also grateful to my friends who have accepted me with all my differences. I appreciate them for treating me like a normal person and they’re the best people I know. . I feel the media uses the word ‘disability’ for their benefit and I wish they would stop that. They portray us as ‘weak’ and post anything we do to live normally as ‘heroic’. We struggle every day like the rest of the world, a little more maybe but everyone has their own struggle. Appreciate us when we achieve something and when we do something outstanding. I would definitely love it when people will appreciate my work towards Chinese literature one day, but not as a weakling highlighting my daily struggles highlighting my weaknesses to the world. . If given a chance, I would love to work and earn some money to support myself. I would love to write for media, newspapers, and magazines, etc. There are not many young people contributing to Chinese literature, so I want to focus on that and write a novel about the life of a disabled person and about life in general from my point of view in Chinese. . I am also learning Japanese and I love to watch Japanese animations. I am working on starting a youtube channel where I can make videos and show the world "life’ as I see it.