I’d like to think I am a pretty humble guy and someone who doesn’t take things for granted. I guess we all secretly like to think that whether we are or not. But what I experienced with some of my fraternity brothers really made me think more about life and how I live it.

To give a little background information, our philanthropy is called the Ability Experience, previously known as Push America, which I must say sounds better but that’s neither here nor there. We deal with people with disabilities whether they are physical or mental. We raise money and awareness for them. We have cycling events in the summer that I have thought about doing but honestly never thought it would be for me. I’ve always had the urge but never really knew where I would fit in. Most of us may know people with a disability, but we never truly understand what they’re going through, whether it be paralysis or maybe a mental disability. And for me, I can simply not fathom what a regular day for them consists of.

This past weekend some of my brothers and I went to Adaptive Sports day here at MSU. This is an event where people come and experience what it is like to have certain disabilities. You get to participate in cycling on bikes that you have to use your hands to pedal. You get to play wheelchair tennis and basketball. And although we were having a lot of fun, playing wheel chair basketball is a lot harder than you think. Having to dribble and wheel yourself at the same time is not an easy feat, and forget about shooting coming from a guy who wasn’t very good on his own two feet anyway. While putting me in that chair made it much worse, seeing people there who basically live in their chairs really inspired me to just think about how lucky I have it in life. We then had the opportunity to play wheelchair tennis. Tennis is a sport that I like to think is hard to begin, and again wheelchair tennis is much more difficult. But, as I watched others excel in this sport, it showed that nothing can keep them down and that they still have fun regardless of their disabilities. I had a blast at this event. It was a lot of fun to learn about how other people can adapt and still do things they love.

This experience was really eye opening for me. It taught me things about my own life and how not to take things for granted. I have the ability to help others realize the same thing. Realize that if you’re having a bad day to just take a minute and think about how other people survive in this world. Spreading awareness about this is the first step. I also highly encourage everyone to give it a shot and participate in events like Adaptive Sports day. Remember, the only disability in life is a bad attitude.