Way back in 1978 a legend was born. Okay, fine: A legend in my own mind. Point being, I had arrived on the scene. Certain things were noticeable early on. I had a crazy amount of cuteness, a real trendsetting sense of style and I was behind in nearly every possible way physically. I didn’t crawl. I was perfectly happy manipulating the world to adapt to me.
While in the hospital to figure out what was going on with my lack of physical development, one test they did was to try to persuade baby me into crawling by jingling a set of car keys in front of me then lay them just out of my reach. Seeing this as an invitation to drive off in a shiny new car I was clearly being given the keys to, I knew I had to act fast. I assessed the situation, reached over in pure genius style, grabbed the blanket I was sitting on, and started pulling it to me which reeled the keys right into my reach. The physical therapist looked at me and said. “She’s sneaky!” My grandmother (and also the reason why I may have a big ego) quickly retorted, “Sneaky!?!? She’s not sneaky! She’s smart!” You tell ‘em Nanny!
Adapting is kind of a way of life when you have Spinal Muscular Atrophy and apparently it’s something that we learn awfully early. I’m not sure how 13 month old baby me was already hacking her world but I am glad that she figured it out so quickly. It has definitely served us well. 13 month old me was clearly ahead of the game with life hacks and it is something that I definitely still do constantly.
There are so many things in life that just don’t work for you. The secret is to take the situation at hand and treat it like a puzzle. How can you solve the problem? How can you make something work more efficiently for you? Brainstorm! Experiment! This isn’t a disability exclusive way of thinking, some of us just have more puzzles to solve than others. A lot more.
I have been told all too often, “Oh I never would have thought of doing that!” As much as I would love to think that I am an engineering prodigy, the truth is… yes, they would have thought about doing something the way I was. They just hadn’t had that puzzle. So don’t shy away from hacking your world and sharing your solutions. I promise you won’t get sent to detention for sharing your answers. That is one of the goals I have for this blog. Share things I have problems with and the solutions I use.
Be Sneaky! Adapt!
