Let’s see. When did my parents have the “talk” with me to tell me I was different and had to work harder for everything I wanted and nothing will come easy– NEVER.
The never sat me down to tell me the birds and bees about Cerebral Palsy (CP). I was living it daily so the talk was never necessary. I knew I was different because I walked with a walker but I still attended school with walking kids and played with them.
I talked funny but I could memorize the ten techniques to a successful interview in Social Work (my college major). God might have given me bad muscle coordination but HE saw my intelligence was intact.
I guess I never really understood the medical aspects of CP until my senior project for a Social Work class. Along with a detailed notebook my mother kept when I was a child, I researched CP and gave a lecture on CP.
God might have given me crappy speech but HE gave me beautiful penmanship to compensate. In some situations, I just write it down when communicating with people nowadays. A lot of my life is compromise and that was not instructed by anyone.
Because I live with CP every day I just accept and take everything in jest. It is my life and that’s how I roll without instruction of the birds & bees.
What prompt this article was recently a friend has had the inept task of explaining autism to her child upon his questioning. I would find this task very endearing and complicated because autism is such unknown unlike CP. CP is concrete unlike autism. It is never easy giving the “talk” if decided to give.
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