As long as my brain is active and functioning

“We have more ability than willpower, and it is often an excuse to ourselves that we imagine that things are impossible.”

Francois De La Rochefoucauld

As long as my brain is active, as long as your brain is active, there is no excuse of being creative irrespective of your challenges or disabilities.

Yesterday was a beautiful day, though I was stooling which made me keep visiting the toilet till daybreak. I couldn't sleep enough and till now, I am still going to the toilet. Well, it's fine. I just do not have time to take any pills for now. I need to flush things out of my system too.

Yesterday afternoon, I heard the TV working from my room and I stood up to join my Dad in the sitting room. I saw a lady who was being interviewed about her disability.

According to the lady, it was at the age of 12 she had this "muscular dystrophy" and till now, she is still experiencing it and receiving treatment.

Muscular Dystrophy is a group of genetic diseases that causes progressive weakness and loss of muscular mass.

It started when she was unable to stand up as her muscles became stiff. She was rushed to the hospital where she read about muscular dystrophy and learnt of the signs and symptoms which was what she had been experiencing too.

The signs and symptoms of this disability is that one would find it difficult to rise from lying or sitting down. Walking on toes, frequent falls, muscle pain and stiffness, and would have trouble running and jumping.

These were the symptoms she was facing and I learned that the disability cannot be cured but treatment can help sustain the victim. I felt pity for her because I saw how she was trying to stand up but couldn't. She is living alone with her brother who has been of help.

She graduated from the University with a 2.1 . I was surprised how she managed to cope with such a disability and academics.

According to her, she never allowed the disability to define her and she paid no attention to it as she has been used to it already.

She said when she was in school, she lived in the hostel and whenever they were going for lectures, she would not go with her friends but alone. Her lecture hall is a 3 storey building and she would always climb over daily until she graduated and even served as she redeployed to where her relatives were staying in Abuja to keep an eye close to her.

She was asked how she managed to keep doing chores and having time to work too. The disability is what she has been used to and so she never sits in one place because she said she finds it difficult to do something that she has stopped doing for a while and so, she would always sweep, go on an errand even if it takes time to return because of her muscles.

What she said caught me which is the title of my post "My brain is active and functioning, I don't see any reason for not making use of it because I have a disability"

I love how she lived her life and never focused on what she is going through. It's very difficult for an individual like her to live in an environment where it isn't favoring her because she said she wants a good environment where she would not have to stress herself.

Where she stays presently living with her brother, when she cooks or wash, she would have to pour the water outside and so carrying a bucket of water every moment contributes to the muscle pain and stiffness as she could just fall down suddenly.

I learned from her story that no matter what we are going through or any disability in us, it doesn't stop us from doing what we want to do unless we decide not to.

She already has her blog page where she earns little money from and helps to care for herself. She has made a lot of designs that she has sold to many people while in her room.

She makes use of her brain and is doing fine with the money she gets from her online job.

There is no excuse for us as long as we are active intellectually and we need to be determined to be the best and prove to the world that our challenges don't define us but we have to make use of it to come out victorious.

Thanks for reading

Image by Soundtrap on Unsplash

[April 05, 2022] (No 95 article for the year)