My Supports

In my daily life I am grateful for the many and varied supports I have available to me. Every day I have the benefit of electricity which enables me to have access to things like heat, light and electric appliances. I wake up in my warm home , flip on light switches, take a shower in hot water, and dry my hair. I rely on that electrical support for all of that. Then I use the microwave or toaster and the coffee maker for breakfast. This kind of support is helpful to me because my shower wakes me up, and I feel better when I am clean and my hair is styled. I use the food and coffee I have for breakfast to fuel my body for a day's work. It puts me in a good mood to start the day.

When I arrrive at work, I still rely on electricity, but then I expand my reliance to include other people who support me and my work.I have an office administrator who keeeps me up to date with messages and the happenings of the day. She helps me to deal with teachers, parents, children, finances and many crises each day. She is also my friend and supports me personally as well. The teachers can be a supportive network when they work together with me to make wonderful things happen for the children. My supervisor can also be a support to me when he helps me make our center a premier place for children and families, and then thanks me publicly for working hard to make it happen every day. My family supports me in a very positive way also. They boost me up when I need it, and make me feel proud of what I do every day.

Without these supports and many others, I would not be functioning as well as I am now. I would be less confident in myself and less comfortable overall. Without the people who support of all those people I mentioned and others, I would not get all the work done. I would be overworked, overwhelmed, unsuccessful and lonely.

I chose to imagine myself having the challenge of having limited vision. I recently visited  an elderly relative who has macular degeneration. She is gradually losing her eyesight. It becomes more and more limited as time passes. I can definitely say I would not want to have this affliction. I would require so much support to get through the day! First, I would need for everything in my house to be in the same place all the time because my vision would be limited in such a way that I can see some things, but finding anything small would be impoossible. I would require implements that magnify everything I can look at, like glasses and magnifying lenses, especially for reading. My phone would have to have really large numbers so I could see to push the buttons. It would be helpful to have clocks that say the time out loud on the hour, so I wouldn't have to struggle to see the time of day. I would also need the support of people to help me. I would potentially need someone to help me shop for everything I need, and take me everywhere I would go. Someone would have to help me keep the house clean, because I wouldn't really be able to see well enough to know if I was getting things clean or not. The people would probably keep my spirits up just by providing companionship, but I think I would feel like I was too needy. And I would need so much more time to accomplish a task. Eventually I wouldn't be able to live alone very easily, although I suppose with enough training it could be done.

Without the supports I have mentioned, along with much more help from medical professionals and others, I would be devastated in this situation. It would be depressing and difficult to be in such a situation without any support. I would feel useless and helpless. This has really directed my thinking to the importance of inclusion. I can only imagine how a child would feel if they were not given the opportunity to be a part of the group just because they had some different needs that weren't being met by the teacher or others who could make a difference. For the sake of inclusion,we need to realize how important it is to recognize what a person is able to do, not what they are unable to do, and move forward with positive thinking.