When I was around 8 months old my mom noticed that something was very wrong. I am not entirely sure if this is 100 percent correct because I was only 8 months old by then. One day my mom started to bounce me on her lap. My legs had decided at that very moment that they were going to stiffen up mid bounce. and I had flipped backwards. Who knew that I could do gymnastics ha ha ! Now, where was I ? Oh yeah now I remember let me continue. After that my mom decided to do some research and schedule an appointment with a specialty clinic . The Clinic my mother brought me to at the time was Gillette Children’s Minnesota in Saint Paul. They did some tests such doing range of motion stretches , testing how fast my reflexes are , my balance, Gait analysis, and a brain scan. Afterward the doctors had told my mother that I have Spastic Hemiplegia Cerebral Palsy. They had also told my mother” Your child will never talk!” ” She won’t be able to walk until she is 6 years old!” ” She will never be able to live Independently.” “She might not graduate highschool the same year as her twin sister!” My mom replied back saying, ” Just you watch my kid is going to be like any other normal kid.” “I am not going to let that happen!”

I absolutely proved the doctors wrong after that day. I took my first steps when I was 17 months old. I can talk because I had speech therapy. I credit the programs that I had while I was younger and I had my old sister Stephanie and Melissa my twin sister to look up to as an example, I don’t know where I would be today without that. For this reason, I am so grateful to these wonderful people came into my life. I thank my mother for reacting the way she did. She has shown me that you should never underestimate yourself no matter what.

Until next time,

Differentlywired94