Tuesday 21 June 2016

Savio and Dreamflight

Hi,

So you can probably tell by the title, this blogpost is about my week instead of some hard-hitting disability information. I've done a lot this week to be honest and I'm extremely excited about one thing, but more on that later!

Both Monday and Tuesday were pretty ordinary: 6:45 am wake up for school, trying to drink 2 litres plus of water (drunk about 4 each day), going to school on 5 hours sleep due to a mix anticipation of the fore coming days and well how can I put this, social media! Also I had to finish packing. Anyhow I don't have much to say about those 2 days apart from they were pretty much normal and okay!

Then came Wednesday, the first day of retreat. Again I only had roughly 6 hours sleep for the same reasons (damn it snapchat!) I arrived at school like normal on the council transport bus, but instead of a school bag in my chair, a suitcase and I headed up to the PE department to drop off my stuff and sign in. Pretty straight forward. Then it was time to get on the coach AKA the part when all the unflattering Snapchat stories commenced (E, I'm talking to YOU!) and we drove for goodness knows how long until we arrived at Savio. For the rest of the day it was mainly settling in and stuff like that.


Thursday is when all the main religious stuff took place. ( I go to a catholic school, what do you expect) a reconciliation service and one of the most comical Masses I've experienced, isn't hard to claim that title haha, happened. It was just funny, I can't really explain why. Later that night it was the disco and I can honestly say I've never seen so many people trying to the Macarena in such close proximity to each other. The whole thing was hilarious especially getting teachers to dab.


Friday came round soon enough, by this point I was shattered, completely and utterly shattered. The majority of the day was spent doing affirmation, basically writing nice stuff about other people. We had our lunch of fish fingers, then we packed the coach and climbed aboard for our trip home. Surprisingly leaving Savio was more emotional than I first anticipated. It felt weird, like I wasn't ready to go back to school. Anyway we arrived back about 3.15 and it was starting to rain. Classic British weather. With the help of one of my teachers, I got all by stuff into my mums van and we drove home.

Whilst driving, Mum said something along the lines of "I've got something really exciting to show you when You get home, and I need to film it." This really started puzzle me and a load of irrational ideas popped in my head. She said it with a wicked smile on her face, so I knew it would be something I was going to be excited about.
We got home, by then I was fully shaking with anticipation. I sat in the kitchen at the table; my mum brought through a a4 envelope and started filming. I opened said envelope which had a letter in it, at the top of the letter it said in big bold letters 'your child has been chosen to go to Orlando, Florida with dreamflight Oct 2016' not going to lie I screamed.

Apparently when we first met my neurologist, I was 1, the head nurse Jane, mentioned to my mum this charity, dreamflight, which takes disabled children aged 8-14 to all the major Orlando theme parks and said I may go with them one day. For the last few years Jane kept on saying I wasn't ready until my last appointment late last year. And my neurologist has been doing the nomination form behind my back. In fact my mum found out that I got a place around a month ago! And all my carers knew. And everyone kept it a secret, which knowing some of my carers, must have been really hard!

So I'm going to go to Orlando! Ekkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk I'm so so grateful and super excited. It's like 115 days away (not like I'm constantly counting down or anything- honest!)

Byeeeeeeee

Saturday 11 June 2016

OMG blog-aversary alert!!!!!!!

Hi,

You know what I've just realised? I've been doing this for a whole year. Uno año! It's super surreal that not only have I stuck with it (my biggest commitment- well apart from vegetarianism) its that people even bother reading the ramblings that I some how scrape into a post,I can't imagine a room of 1000 people let alone 14 thousand people, it is slightly scary to think that that's the amount of views I have at present.

So no matter if your someone I know, my friends or teachers, who I feel like I've forced this all down their throats over the last 12 months- sorry about that!- or if your a person who's come here on their own accord, thanks for reading, thanks for talking and most importantly thanks for putting up with me, I'm definitely not the best disability blogger out there BUT I am on the second page of Bing, which I think is an achievement considering the random stuff on Bing. 


I literally feel like this Dog at the moment 

Anyways,

Byeeeeeeeeeeee

Sunday 5 June 2016

Hollywood

Hi,


(Trigger warning: suicide)

So, all of the time we hear of celebrity endorsed campaigns and charities in aid of suicide prevention. Normally addressing the viewer directly and the celebrity talking about their own attempted suicide or about a case study, reassuring those watching they aren't alone and said charity will help them, if they reach out to it. We are all familiarised with these ways breakthrough. Even Hollywood films are used to spread these vital messages, right?
For any able-bodied person, the answer, in general, would be yes. So why are Hollywood writers and directors telling a completely different message to the disabled community?

So many films are depicting the life of a PWD isn't worth living, that we are supposedly wanting to kill ourselves to end our 'suffering'- that that's the only way to escape what 'unfair' lives we live. That we aren't worth it.

A extremely recently film, me before you, is in a line of rom-coms to go down this plot route. Although I personally haven't seen this film, from reading articles and reviews of it, this is what many disability activists make of it.

(The striped back plot is that a guy named Will is super rich with a city job, but becomes quadriplegic after an accident. His carer,Louise, is horrified when Will wants to visit an assisted suicide clinic to end his life. The pair obviously fall in love, but Will still wants to go ahead with his original plan.)

At the film premiere the activism group 'Not Dead Yet' staged a protest and some activists have voiced their discomfort with the plot
“The message of the film is that disability is tragedy and disabled people are better off dead,” said disabled activist, Ellen Clifford.  “It comes from a dominant narrative carried by society and the mainstream media that says it is a terrible thing to be disabled.”

I don't really know what to make of this topic to be honest. On one hand I feel like it provokes discussion about disability which are extremely important to get into mainstream media. However, it literally leaves a window of opportunity for so many people to stereotype PWDs as suicidal, due to the fact that there is a lack of representation of PWDs in films and TV shows.
But one thing that I'm sure of is that Hollywood has created this plot line and pulling the pity card to get more money. Always the case!

Anyway, sorry this is so late- lack of inspiration

Byeeeeeeeeee