Everyone always says to not let your limitations define you. To a point, they are right. But at the same time, it is the events and cards we are handed in life that shape us into the people we are.

My disability defines who I have become, but I will not let it hinder me from achieving my goals in life. If anything, it helps me accomplish them! At five years old, I was diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy. When you’re five years old, you don’t understand why you’re going to the doctors all over the state, and then out of the state, or why your mom is looking at you crying. As a five year old, this was scary to me. I didn’t know what was going to happen to my body, and the worst part was that neither did the doctors. And they still don’t. But at 20, my disability has formed me into the person I am today.

Every day, I know how lucky I am to still be walking. To still not be hooked up to machines at night, to be able to eat my food and not be tube fed. To have control of my body and its’ movements and functions. These things, everyone takes for granted. I find it sad that some people do not realize how lucky they are or how good they truly have it in life until something bad happens to them. Being born with a life long illness that has no cure for your type, you learn this early in life. I don’t believe that a child with a disability ever really gets to be a “normal child” (whatever normal is) because they face these obstacles so early in life. These kids have to grow up so fast, and this is why my disability has formed me.

At five years old, you shouldn’t have a worry in the world. You’re innocent, and pure. But at five years old, I had to worry about having surgeries and getting my blood drawn. Just as many kids with disabilities do. I was severely bullied in school, to the point of many times thinking about why I was still alive. All because of a disease that nobody can catch from any form of contact. All because of the way I was born. That’s it. Just the way I was born. Looking back, at five years old the other kids didn’t understand why I was different either, but the bullying continued until I switched schools in middle school.

Being bullied for something that you cannot control, regardless of how much you want to, is the most helpless and powerless feeling in the world. You grow up feeling like nobody is ever going to love you, you grow up feeling like you’ll never have friends, the feelings of never being good enough, are all so overwhelming. All because some kids in school cannot understand what you’re dealing with. Because there is no sense of empathy. Because putting other people down made themselves feel better.

Now I stand here, at twenty years old, and I’m actually thankful for my disability. I’m thankful for all the bullying I went through. Obviously I would never thank the people who bullied me, even though to this day some have said sorry. But you cannot forgive someone for constantly making you feel like you shouldn’t be alive. Or that something is wrong with you just because you have a disability that you’re born with. It’s not like you choose to have a disability as soon as you’re fertilized in the uterus, I mean really come on people. As far as I’m concerned, I’m pretty normal, and so is everyone else who has a disability. We find ways to accommodate life to us and our needs. We find ways everyday to better ourselves and our lives.

I do not write this article today out of sorrow for myself, or to seek pity from anyone.

I write this because maybe one day someone will read it and it will help them to understand a kid that might be different. I write it for the kids who are different and are afraid, because trust me, I was there too. I was afraid to talk about it and frankly, I was afraid to write this article. But I write for those who suffer in silence with the invisible disabilities. Because when you’re not in a wheelchair or showing other traits of a disability, nobody believes you have one. I am writing this for the people with disabilities that let their disability dictate their life. I write it for those people who do not think they can become something because they have a disability. I write it to have someone say if she did it, so can I. Because now, I’m proud. I’m proud of the person I have become. I’ve come a long way from that little five year old, and so can all of you. You can let your limitations beat you, or you can beat your limitations. You can change something bad that happened to you, into something good for someone else. You can be the change you wish to see. Be a leader, and others will start to follow. Make a difference in your life, and the lives of others.

Every single kid who has a disability needs to know they are loved for who they are and nothing, I mean nothing is wrong with them. We are all normal in our own ways.

Everyone faces some hardship in their life, and newsflash but its’ not a competition on who has it worse! There’s no finish line, there’s no prizes, because at the end of the day, we cannot get rid of our challenges in life, we have to learn to accept them and cope with them. We need to realize that in fact, some people do have it worse. We need to come together and love one another and accept people for who they are rather than trying to change them or rip them apart.

And this is why I am thankful for Muscular Dystrophy. I do not pass judgement at those who are different from me, instead I embrace it. I embrace the fact that there are different challenges in the world and different types of people, cultures, etc. This is what makes the world a place people want to explore. I am thankful for being able to understand that difference is not a bad thing, it’s a good thing. I am thankful that I can understand what it is like to feel so small in a world that is so big. Because out of this, I am able to help other people stand up for who they are. I am able to help other people stand up and say that they make a difference in this world, and they matter just as much as the next person. I am able to stand up and show these people that they are loved. And nothing, can beat the feeling of changing someone else’s life for the better.