"An Unlikely Story of Challenge and Triumph Over Cerebral Palsy:Someone Like Me" Written by John W. Quinn

So first off Merry Christmas to Everyone i hope your day with family and friends was great!!

Now, on to what this post is about:

Photo of John W. Quinn

  People that know me also know that I have a condition known as Cerebral Palsy a birth defect that usually occurs sometime during pregnancy, at birth or a short time afterwards.  Cerebral Palsy effects the Cerebrum of the brain, it also has different degrees of effect on the musculature of the body. this sometimes invoves involuntary movements or in my case spasms of the mucles.  My reaction times in situations like driving are a bit slower than your average person.  The CP also effects my vision somewhat so I wear glasses, my depth preception is pretty bad so I have difficulty judging distances, and one other reason I wear glasses is because the muscles around my eyes which are meant to help me look in different directions are tighter one one side than the other so my eyes kind of wander a little.  The issue with my eyes is only noticable when I don't have my glasses on.  Other than that my eyes are a beautiful  BLUE I am complimented about them all the time!  My body is mainly bottom right side effected.  My right foot is turned in causing me to walk with a limp which is why I grew up wearing braces the majority of the time.  The braces are quite akward looking so I stopped wearing them in the beginning of middle school.  But, now I'm 18 and I've been told that I need to wear them constantly, but I really don't and that one is all on me so you know.  I have always been told that I could do anything that I set my mine to thanks to the friends and family I have in my life.  I've travelled across the country by AmTrak which I did at the age of 15, I'm pretty proud of that.  I've been to Africa, and I plan to do much more travelling in the future.  I've learned my many strengths and my weaknesses too.  Yes, I've fallen many times in my life but I've always just gotten up and dusted myself off, and yes people stare and sometimes I still have to work on not paying any mind to that.  Sometimes people are going to be rude and mean, but many people are undeducated when it comes to my condition.  It is great to look and and  ASK QUESTIONS that is much better than just guawking at me.  I'm becoming a teacher so that I can show children from a young age that it is  GREAT to be DIFFERENT!! I am POSITIVE  for the most part about my condition, but I am HUMAN so I do get down on myself and wonder why I bear this burden/GIFT then, I remember that I was born to be just the WAY I AM!  I've done some looking, trying to find different books written by people with CP.  Of course there is "My Left Foot", Written by the AMAZING Christy Brown.  Christy Brown's story is great but I was really trying to find a book written by a person who has CP that is more like my  own which is really mild considering the many different severites that this condition has.  Tonight I found this book witten by John W. Quinn who was born with CP and also had a longtime childhood dream of joining the Navy (just so you know the military in any branch will not allow a person with a physical disabilty in this case CP join).  With CP comes many issues of balance and in the first chapter of the book Quinn talks about how there was a certian manuever they had to preform before induction with their physical called the "Duck Walk" he couldn't do this properly because of his balance.  It is needless to say that he didn't get in the first time.  He was determined so he went back and kept his CP secret and served in the NAVY for 20 years!! I think it is an amazing story of perseverance, and I am only in the second chapter!  Go read it for a better prespective on people with disabilities. We can and will overcome all barriers one way or another!! Now, I am not really a fan of Fox News but above is a video interview done with John W. Quinn.  I feel that I can truly relate to his story!  I was always taught to get back up and move on...:) I hope you enjoy this!! I found the book in iBooks for 9.99.