If you could meet one famous person, who would you want to meet? Questions like this are normally not asked to adults. It’s not a usual topic that’s brought up in everyday conversations. Meeting famous people isn’t something most adults care about. Of course, almost everyone has a person or two we would love to meet, but it’s not something we normally do. Often, meeting a famous person isn’t a high priority. Most people aren’t comfortable with being called out for doing something good. Often, people appreciate acknowledgement and praise, but we are uncomfortable with it. For people with disabilities or health conditions, many times, offering to meet a celebrity or being praised for something can be a unique experience.

In an entry I did a few years ago, I discussed my opinion about the whole inspiration controversy. In short, while many people with disabilities hate when the word “inspirational” is used to describe them, I personally don’t normally mind. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like being praised or called out for something I do, but I hope that I can be an inspiration to others. I believe part of my role as a person with a significant disability is to educate and show others what is possible.

I’ve seen many news stories about people with disabilities or health conditions getting to meet celebrities or getting to do something special as a nice gesture of an organization or person. While this is totally awesome for some people, I personally don’t like the idea of this for someone like myself.  Why would I deserve something like that? Just because I have some limitations and have a different life than most? To me, that is not a good reason. I understand and fully support things like Make-a-Wish for kids with terminal illnesses. Kids with terminal medical conditions unfortunately don’t have much to look forward to. If their one dream of meeting someone famous or going on that special trip somewhere can be fulfilled, by all means, it should. However, I don’t believe that those of us who have physical disabilities (that aren’t considered progressive or terminal) should get that type of special treatment.

I was talking with my mom a few weeks ago about this, and I was telling her how a recent article I read about a man with the same condition I have has special relationships with a few popular country singers. I told her how I thought that wasn’t right. She then brought up something I never thought about. She said maybe that’s another form of advocacy for some people. Maybe some people like sharing their story with famous people and need that recognition to feel worthy. For me, personally, I feel like that is completely asking for pity. For full disclosure, I’ve done meet and greets after a couple of country concerts I attended with my friends, but that’s purely because we were a couple of giddy girls wanting to get autographs and snap a picture with a singer we loved. It lasted about 30 seconds and nothing was even mentioned about me personally. That’s the only way I will ever “meet” a celebrity. I have also met and shared my story with legislators, but when I do that, I’m advocating for better funding for the services I need to receive in order to help me live independently.

I’ve been told that some people probably think some of the advocacy work I do is asking for pity or drawing the wrong type of attention that I want. When I write these articles and do the YouTube videos, I hope I educate people about what life is like for people with disabilities and what we can do. I never ever do this to invoke pity. By doing what I do, am I bragging or showing off? Honestly, I can understand why some people may think that way, and I don’t think they’re completely wrong. I’m proud of where I am and what I’ve accomplished given the curves life has thrown me. I think people have to realize that people with disabilities may never be able to accomplish those big “life milestones” that most of our peers will be able to, so, for me at least, when I share personal experiences about living with disability, many times when I post whatever it is on my social media, I think of it as another milestone or life accomplishment. Is it the same as one of my friends posting about a new house or something cute or funny that their child just did? Of course not, but that’s ok. I still appreciate getting praise and acknowledgement from it.

I’ve been fortunate to have received some awards and recognition various things mostly related to the advocacy I have done. A couple of examples come to mind. The first was back in my senior year of high school. At the end of the year, I was invited to the senior sports awards banquet. Now, I obviously wasn’t an athlete, so I had no reason to be invited. I was told that the athletes had voted me to get the sportsmanship award (I attended almost every football and basketball game during high school). I also received a special sportsmanship scholarship at the academic awards night. Were both of those due to having a disability? In a roundabout way, probably, but again, it was because of something I was able to do despite my circumstances. I’m sure some people in my class felt like I was given undeserved recognition, but, for me, it was a huge honor.

Another thing that comes to mind is when my coworker and I received the “You Make a Difference” award for the articles we wrote in the local newspaper. This was when I was in college, and another lady and I had a weekly column we switched off writing articles for. It was all about experiencing life living a disability. The lady’s son had a disability, so she wrote from her perspective, and I wrote about my experiences. It was all voluntary, but the exposure was incredible for us. We ended up getting an award in Madison. I don’t remember where it was even through, but it was a very special honor. Again, it was because of my willingness and ability to share personal experiences about my disability that this happened.

The last example is when I received the Self-Advocate Diehard Award at the 2019 Self-Determination Conference. I’m not one to boast about myself, so I haven’t mentioned it in any journal entries until now. I was incredibly surprised and honored to receive this. I had done quite a bit of work with the Self-Determination YouTube channel and other things that year, so it was very humbling to be recognized. That too, was directly related to having a disability.

While it’s often hard or uncomfortable to accept, everyone appreciates some type of recognition or praise to some extent. There are so many different views related to this topic. There isn’t a right or wrong--it’s really about individual preference. People with disabilities just have some extra things to consider when receiving acknowledgement.

***The views expressed here are strictly those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of InControl Wisconsin, the Network or any of our sponsors.