<\/p>\n
(Emily is a woman who works with adults with disabilities. Due to privacy concerns, she has changed the names of her clients and asked that her last name be withheld.)<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Working with people with disabilities was never something I While I decided to apply for this job because I had some \n It took a little while, but gradually I did begin to \n I suppose the most frustrating thing about working with my \n While I often feel that I am unable to do many of the things \n I am still working on the solution. For now, I simply credit <\/p>\n
\nintended as a career. <\/span>But five
\nyears ago, I stumbled upon a job working with adults with developmental
\ndisabilities in a group home. I was hooked. <\/span>As I worked in the group home for three years, I did some
\nrather mundane tasks– cleaning bathrooms, doing laundry, grocery
\nshopping. <\/span>I was also given the
\nopportunity to befriend four individuals very different from myself. <\/span><\/p>\n
\nvague idea of wanting to help other people, I had little understanding of how
\nmuch these people would help me in the years to come. <\/span>I won’t lie and say that my patience was never tested as I
\nworked with them, but I can say that my eyes were opened to a new perspective
\non life. <\/span>I had grown up in a part
\nof the country where personal achievement mattered. Everything from the grades
\nI got in school to the name of college I attended to the prestige of companies
\nwhere I did my summer internships was highly scrutinized by others in my
\ncommunity. <\/span>At least, I felt like
\nit was. <\/span>But in the group home,
\nnone of that mattered. To those four individuals, the things that mattered were
\nwhether or not I like to turn the music up while driving in the van, to have
\npizza as a special treat, that I could tell a good joke, and that I was able to
\nunderstand.<\/p>\n
\nunderstand. <\/span>I began to realize how
\nmisunderstood these individuals were. <\/span>I saw that people would talk about them in their presence as if they
\ncouldn’t hear or didn’t comprehend what was being said. <\/span>I understood that they didn’t like it
\nwhen people did that. <\/span>I understood
\nthat even though most people viewed them as eternal children, as people who
\nwould never grow up, that they were adults and had many of the same wants and
\nneeds that I have. <\/span>Like me, they
\nwanted close friendships, to fall in love, to spend time with family, and to
\nlive life to the fullest. <\/span>I
\nunderstood that they were people.<\/p>\n
\nclients was understanding what they wanted and knowing how difficult it was for
\nthem to get it. Katie, who used a wheelchair, loved to spend time with her
\nmother. But because her mother was not strong enough to lift her anymore, she couldn’t
\ngo home for a visit. Toby loved to go out dancing, but usually couldn’t because
\nhe needed a staff person with him and staff was usually too busy. The list goes
\non and on. <\/span><\/p>\n
\nthat I would like, it is usually the result of one or more choices I have made.
\nFor example, I can’t travel very much anymore because I decided to buy a new
\ncar and need to work to afford the monthly payment. If I had just bought a used
\ncar, however, I would have been able to afford to travel. The individuals I
\nworked with are restricted in what they do, but their restrictions are not the
\nconsequences of the choices they have made. Although I think that my clients
\nhave a good quality of life overall, throughout the years I spent working them,
\nI began to see these inabilities as a great injustice, something that needed to
\nbe fixed.<\/p>\n
\nmy four clients in the group home for helping me to look beyond my own personal
\nachievement. They inspired me to try to find a way to improve quality of life
\nfor people with disabilities. In the years I spent working with those four
\nindividuals, I began to realize that it didn’t matter where I went to college
\nor how many A’s I got in school. The most important thing was to do something
\nwith my life that meant something, that I was passionate about, and that made a
\ndifference. In a way, they taught me how to live my own life to the fullest.<\/p>\n