The story of Rina #cpstopsnothing

My name is Rina, I am 24 y/o. I live in Ukraine, I work as a copyrighting journalist and I am currently receiving my master’s degree of foreign philology. I chose foreign languages as a profession because I think that if people make some effort to understand one another then they will see that we all are more alike than different. I took this lesson from life thanking to my disability. I was born with cerebral palsy and I can walk only with someone’s help. People were telling my family that I was a weak, hopeless and useless vegetable, but they never believed in it, and they taught me not to believe. I loved competing and winning competitions. I don’t mean running, swimming or playing sport games, it is not what I am strong at, especially in comparison to non-disabled people. But instead of my weaknesses I focused on my strengths — I won a number of poetic competitions at school (I feel kind of limited in exploring the real world because I depend on other people in it, in childhood I had much less abilities than I have now, so I learnt to create the world of my own via poetry), I took first places at the scientific conferences at my university (because when people confuse me to a mentally ill person I try my best to show them how smart I can be), and now I sing and play the guitar on stage (because when people tell me to hide I have a strong desire to show up and to tell the world that I exist and I deserve to have my place in this world). I believe in God and I know that He believes in me. God does not leave me and I know that He has a special plan for me. I do not deny that it is harder to achieve some goals when you are disabled (what most people take as granted can be a huge win for people like me), but disability has never been a reason for me to stop doing what I want and love. My message to all my differently abled brothers and sisters is simple: you are who you are, be proud of it. Your disability is what you have, but it does not define you. ср, 19 сент. 2018 г. в 17:58, Eboni P. Jones <stepbystepinfaith@gmail.com>: