Visualize your everyday routine for a moment: For most of you, when you wake up, you get out of bed, get ready for the day, drive to school or work, and don't give any of those tasks a second thought. You probably walk right into work, you go about your morning and know that soon it will be lunch time, or time for a break. You then finish out the work or school day and drive home, run errands, or meet up with friends. You return home and change, make some food, and relax. Then, you might take a shower, watch some t.v. and get into bed. You toss and turn until you become comfortable and fall asleep. There isn't a moment that you are not able to complete your day without stopping.

Now, imagine that you wake up, you need help to get out of bed, and you need someone to help you get dressed. You have to exert most of your energy for the day just getting ready. Then, you need someone to drive you to work, the store, or anywhere you need to be for the day. After you arrive at work, you struggle to get yourself out of the car, into a wheelchair, and into a building that is not working in your favor. During the day, you become exhausted and each task you face is not easy. You have to rely on other people to help you get through the day. Once the day is done, someone has to come pick you up, your body is weak at this point of the day, and you are uncomfortable. When you arrive home, you probably want to change out of your work clothes and relax. However, in order to do that, you need to ask someone to help you change for the second time that day. You have multiple chores to get done, but you have no energy and you really don't want to ask anyone to do it for you (since they help you with everything else). Then, you sit around and hope that someone will call, or that someone will come visit, or that there will be something good on t.v. so you aren't bored silly. You wait around until it is time to get ready to go to sleep. Showering is not an everyday occurrence or a nightly option because it involves so much effort from you and help from others... not to mention the stress put on your body to actually transfer in to the shower and back out (while soaking wet). The only night time "routine" you get now is a scheduled time to go to the bathroom. You then have assistance getting into clothes to sleep in, and exert any last bit of energy that you have left getting into bed. Once you get into bed, you lay there unable to get comfortable, but moving your legs yourself is not an option... so, you wait until you fall asleep only to repeat the same thing the next day.

See the difference between the two? So, with that being said, I challenge anyone reading this: Look at life through different eyes, look at your surroundings, ask yourself what your life would be like if you couldn't walk, see, hear, or function like a "normal" citizen. I challenge you to stop and appreciate the small things, the people around you, and the life you have been given. I challenge you to be aware of the buildings around you that are not made for disabled people, to observe parking lots and sidewalks, to notice if an establishment has been made accessible to EVERYONE, and to spot the citizens living in this world that is not made for the disabled.

My last challenge to you: RAISE AWARENESS of the struggles disabled people face, raise awareness of the public spaces that are not accessible, and raise awareness about the lack of attention that anyone "different" in society receives.