Being a red-head, I often get strange looks and second glances with comments on the color, but have developed ways of being inconspicuous if I want to be.
Now for the first time in my life, I feel like there is a spotlight on me that I can't shake. You'd think being short would make it easier, not harder to go through life unnoticed, but everywhere I go, people stop talking and look at me or glance at me and then look away embarrassed or look at me and come over to talk to me because I'm in a wheelchair and they are taught it's the right thing to do.
I try my best to be nice and polite because they're doing what they know how to do. I just sometimes wish that I had someone with me who didn't view me by my disability. It really hurts to have a label like that. And then I feel bad for even thinking that because I should be grateful that people hold open doors or stop their conversations to politely ask how I'm doing. It's not that I don't appreciate it all, but it's all based on my handicap and not me.
Now I understand even more the value of someone who is able to walk beside the wheelchair and talk about the little funny stories that life has to offer. I understand why someone would want to have the person who asks not, "How are you doing?" but rather, "Can you believe the sunlight coming in those windows? Amazing, isn't it?"
This spotlight is one that I'll have because I'm obviously physically different right now and it opens my eyes to what people who have this permanently have to go through.
