 So yesterday a friend looked at me with a smile on her face and said, Joe, there's nothing that's disabled about you, as if it were a compliment. And I appreciate that, but I want to explain why that's never going to be a good thing for me to hear. I am disabled. Disabled is not a bad word. And oftentimes people will try to reassure me that I don't seem disabled to them. Like, don't worry, I don't think about you as weird and different, which is really what they're saying. Disabled is not a bad or a dirty word. It's an accurate description for a group of people to whom I belong. It means that the world is not built for people like me. It means that I am always going to be adjusting to different things and that is simply the reality that I live in. To anyone who has ever offered this up as words of encouragement, I understand that it comes from a really good place, but I just want to remind you that disabled is not a bad word. It's simply a descriptive word for a certain community. And that is not inherently a negative thing.