 And if you find yourself struggling with disability pride month like I often have, or the idea of being proud of being disabled, being this oxymoron, know that you're not alone. Prosthetic foot, microphone. Brilliant, foot mic. Hi, my beautiful internet friends. I come to you, barely showered, no makeup, hair not done because I've been trying to make this video all month and I keep putting it off because I don't feel like I'm saying the right thing. But folks, that's all right. I wanted to talk about disability pride month. I'm now realizing how weird it looks to be holding and sort of talking into a foot for this entire video, but we're already committed to the bit. So we're gonna power through. The month of July as a whole is disability pride month. Before becoming visibly disabled, I didn't know this month existed. Did you? I'm curious, comment below. Were you aware of disability pride month? And I think it was some time after losing my leg before I was really aware of this being a thing. It is now almost five years later since losing my leg, going down this disabled journey. And I have to report that on the surface, when I hear disability pride, it still rubs me the wrong way. I get sad and sort of upset and like an angry teenager, just very grumpy. It has taken me a while to contextualize what disability pride means to me because I am not one of those people that sometimes I feel like I should be who can sit here and say, I'm so proud of the fact that I'm disabled. This is the best thing that's ever happened to me. I would never take it back. Like I know when I follow so many people who strongly and I believe honestly, spread messages like that. But that is something that I have never truly felt. And so I made it my mission to make peace with this, to find my reason for disability pride month as someone who is a public member of the disability community online who speaks on disabled issues. I figured I should really focus on this, right? So part of disability pride month for me is embracing what I actually feel about disability and not trying to like make it sound all candy coated and pretty, being disabled in a world that is built for able-bodied people is challenging. It's difficult. It's constant adaptation. It's a lot of frustration. It's a lot of extra energy. Like it's hard, right? It certainly can be depending on the day. And so as I go through disability pride month, I kind of require myself to pause for a moment and acknowledge a few things. I wanted to share this with you in case you find yourself in a similar boat or maybe you've never heard of disability pride month altogether. The point of pride month is not to sit here and be like being disabled is the greatest thing I would never change it. It's to acknowledge the struggles that we individually and a community have overcome together. It's to celebrate the victories and how far we've come. July is disability pride month because this was the month that the American with Disabilities Act was signed into being, which was a huge step legally forward for our community. And it is to acknowledge the things in ourselves that we are proud of. I think one of the things that I really struggle with with talking publicly about it being disability pride month and the fact that like, yes, we're celebrating victories, but we're also admitting that there's like a ways to go in our country and our world for people with disabilities is that I am well aware of the fact that we're fighting an uphill battle that has a long way to go and that a lot of people don't care. Should they have to care? No, would it be nice if they did? Yes, I'm aware of the fact that if I sit here and talk about inequalities in our society, if you are disabled and all of the very real and massive struggles that so many individuals have to overcome. And I know I have it easy in comparison. Like I have good medical care compared to a lot of other situations, people find them in and it's still really difficult. It's hard to recognize that change isn't going to happen unless the people who are feeling the negative effects of that inequity do the advocating and invite allies, invite able-bodied people to join us in the fight. And that's hard because I'm tired of existing in the body that I exist in. I don't want to have to fight for rights or for accessibility. I just want to kind of live life. I just want to feel like I get enough sleep and like my body doesn't hurt too much that I can function. Another big part of disability pride for me has been making peace with the term disabled and not trying to paint that as anything that it's not. Having a physical or mental condition that limits movements, senses or activities. Every once in a while, oftentimes from able-bodied people, you'll hear things like you're not disabled, you're differently abled, you have superpowers and maybe that resonates for some people but I can tell you for me and many of my friends, hate that, yeah, disgusting, not for me because being an amputee for me, being disabled means that there are absolutely things I cannot do meaning that my movements in society, what I have access to, what I am able to do for the rest of my life is going to be different from an able-bodied person. I think recognizing that difference and not trying to be like, no, it's totally fine. It's all the same, it's just different downplays the significance of what disabled people face and what we get to overcome in some of the challenges. So disability pride for me is looking at that word honestly and being like, you're darn right, that's accurate. I'm gonna embrace that and live my life to the best of my ability as someone who is disabled. So today, in honor of Disability Pride Month, I did wanna share a few things that I am personally very proud of and I feel a lot of pride in. Honestly, it kind of all just boils down to the way that we as people can adapt and overcome things. Those words are a little overused but when it comes to disabled people, I don't think that it can be stressed enough how talented so many people are at constant adaptation and at making it look effortless. I am very proud of my ability and my body's ability to adapt, to adapt to substantial physical changes and keep going. Very proud of the fact that I had a really awful surgery this year and it's not even three months later and I am back up trying to walk every day, working through pain, trying to take care of my body, still making it to the gym on good days because that's super important for my brain and my own mental health and physical health and I'm proud of the fact that I can be honest about the good and the bad days. I've always felt this extreme pressure to only ever be positive, to only portray this happy-go-lucky light about being disabled because that's what the people like. That's what makes you a palatable disabled person. People wanna be inspired by you but I am very proud of the fact that I can sit with anger and rage and deep frustration and so many moments, especially lately and going through surgery, it was rough. Where I can say, I wish this wasn't my life. I wish I wasn't dealing with this right now. I don't wanna be feeling this pain. I don't wanna be participating in this struggle and yet I still choose to. I'm gonna allow myself to feel those emotions and still move forward and still accomplish things and still achieve and heal and overcome and pursue where I wanna be and who I wanna be. I'm proud of the fact that I am much better now at allowing myself to feel emotions and acknowledge them and not just try to paint a pretty picture in my own head of like everything's okay all the time. This is great, because sometimes it's not and it's part of being fricking human. To feel that, to admit that, to be like, that's okay. I'm gonna have a bad day and I'm gonna keep moving through it. It's gonna be a rough week and that's just what it is. I'm proud of the fact that I have learned to be more honest about those things and a lot less ashamed of them. I would encourage you to check out some of the links and videos that I have posted down below that are much more educational and kind of talk about the history of this month, talk about the history of the ADA being signed into existence, what that took to get there, the incredible people involved in making that happen and just other perspectives on disability pride because I kind of think that this is one of those things that means something different to all of us. If you are someone who also struggles with the idea of disability pride month, I think A, it would be maybe helpful to educate yourself on some of the resources, some of the history because that helped me, but also just please know that you are not alone. This is something I still struggle with. I still feel pressured to be happier about being disabled than I am. The reality, not candy coated, is that being disabled in this world brings a whole bag of challenges and one of the cool things about that is that we are not alone in facing that. This community is absolutely incredible and if you find yourself struggling with disability pride month like I often have or the idea of being proud of being disabled, being this oxymoron, know that you're not alone. I see you, I'm here with you. I have my good and my bad days about that but we're all in this together and just to reiterate, let's feel what we need to feel and then continue moving through that and continue moving forward. There's a lot of work to be done in this country when it comes to equality of four people with disabilities in pretty much every aspect of life and industry and I truly believe that we are going to continue to make small steps forward through the actions of individuals like myself and like yourself. Thank you for listening to me today. I meant to sit down and script this video and make it sound cool and eloquent and maybe a little less gloomy but instead I decided to just pick up my mic and my prosthetic foot and talk to you guys from where my brain is today. I appreciate you listening. I would love to hear what disability pride means to you whether you are a member of the community or whether you are outside of it, any thoughts or perspectives you have to share, please share them down below. I'd love to read your comments. To my patrons over on Patreon, thank you so much for your continued amazing and generous support. I couldn't do what I do without you. Thank you and to you watching this video right now, a huge thank you for spending a few minutes out of your day here with me today. It could be anywhere else in the world doing literally anything else but you chose to spend a few minutes out of your day here with me today and I truly appreciate that. I love you guys, I'm thinking about you and I will see you in the next video. Should I like wave with the foot? Does that mess up the mic sound? Mwah, bye guys.