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I want to share with you some funny, embarrassing and interesting memories I have been able to share with some of the beautiful women that have helped care for me throughout my life.
2005 - 3rd grade: My assistant took me sledding in gym class. We fell of the sled and rolled down the hill twice. In the end, my limbs were so spastic and so tight, teachers had to thaw me out with heat packs and blankets.
2006 - 4th grade: I was encouraged to go outside and play in the snow by the time I reached the 4th grade. I had to stop working way earlier than the others because it took twice as long and twice as many people to prepare me for the snow. Two teachers would dress me, pulling on my mittens and yanking my hat down over my eyes as a joke, then stuffing me into a giant suit, topped with wobbly boots. My assistant at the time forgot to buckle my suit straps before I started walking down the hall to join my class. Right before I was at the exit, my suit fell to my ankles in front of everybody. We were all laughing, but I - beat red - waddled like a penguin the rest of the way.
2007 - 5th grade (?): I was probably 11 years old at the time. It was my first time really participating in the school annual field days. I was allowed to be in the tire race in which I was the rider on the tire and a team of maybe four to six classmates would pull me across the field, around a pole and back again. My teachers were worried because there was no backboard to prop me up and there wasn't anything really, for me to hold onto. This was on tape: The whistle is blown. You see the two tires come across the left side of the screen (myself and my "enemy".) It is VERY apparent that I am literally hanging on for dear life, my spastic arm stuck straight out like a spooked cat, and I'm trying so hard not to let go.
Then the opponent's team flies across the right side of the screen. There's cheering because they won. Then there's a rising, "Oh, my gosh, the little girl! Get the girl!" You then see almost half of the school staff racing toward the turning pole, the principle and my assistant in the lead. Then, to everyone's relief, the principle has me in his arms and as he sits me down in my wheelchair, I start cracking up: "Did y'all see that!? That was awesome! Let's do that again!"
2012 - 10th grade: I had just started locking my bathroom stall door for more privacy (the assistant would hold it shut to be able to enter if I needed her). I ran out of toilet tissue and called her. Seeing, no one else was in the room, my assistand tried belly crawling under the door. Just when she was half way, two girls walked in. "Are you, okay?" :) When that didn't work, she went in the stall beside mine, stood on the toilet seat and said, "here, catch!"
"I can't. I only have one arm to use..."
"No biggy. I'll bounce it." She threw a paper roll against the wall and it landed square in my lap.