The Wheelchair Quarterback

There will always be 99 reasons to be upset and to give up right in front of your face, but you always have to find the one hidden reason to be happy and keep going.

Happiness should always live in your heart. Satisfaction should never step foot in your brain.

The two feelings often get tied together and sometimes follow each other around. That shouldn’t happen, ever. They are two completely different feelings that lead to a few very different outcomes.

For people with disabilities, like myself, things don’t just come easily or as easy as they do for people without a disability. Sure, there are times when that becomes extremely frustrating for me to swallow, but happiness is the most important thing to me.

I always try to find a reason to be happy. Even though sometimes it seems like there is always an invisible mountain in my way, I constantly remind myself to be happy.

Now, I’m not saying that I don’t get upset, frustrated, and angry, because I do, but what I am saying is that I search for something to make me happy all the time, especially during the moments where I do notice that I am getting down on myself.

When I do get upset, I tell myself that I am lucky to have the abilities that I do have and remember that life could always be worse, and then try to accomplish something that is going to help me with something in the future.

But, when I do accomplish one of the mini-goals that I set for myself, I don’t take time to celebrate and rest; I move on to the next goal.

It’s okay to be happy with what you have done, but there’s no time to be satisfied. You always have to be looking for more. If you just stop working hard because you accomplished one of your goals, how is that making you better?

There’s always another thing that has to be done. That’s true for everybody, but it’s especially true in my life and in the lives of others with disabilities.

Because nothing is easy for disabled individuals, when someone with a disability does achieve something for the first time, the people close to them see it as a reason to celebrate, but I have always seen my achievements as more and more proof that I can do anything that I set my mind to and things to remind me to be happy instead of satisfied.