Equal Opportunities

As a person with a disability myself, I believe that work is essential to self fulfillment. It is a way to earn and sustain your daily basic needs. Although I have struggled to be employed, sanity dictates that I am better when I get to work and be independent. However, this is not so for many people who have undergone the process of a person with lived experiences of a disability.

In between bouts of trying hard and persevering, I do get work mainly because of my educational background. Having studied well, puts you up in a situation where you are permitted to compete and work without seeing your disability. Perhaps, it is also a gift that my disability is invisible. It has its advantages and disadvantages. Funny, how I see almost everything as an advantage or disadvantage. Mostly, I need to focus on the advantages.

So here I am pushing myself again – empowering myself to be hired and to find work and sustenance. I guess I’m lucky because not everyone can actually work despite the circumstances. So I thank people who have given me a chance to work and be involved. I specifically would like to thank the office of Coun. Betty Lourdes F. Tabanda for taking me in and letting me feel that I am typical or maybe even normal to a point. But how can you say you are normal, really?

Besides that, I always believe that hardwork and perseverance makes the world go round for me. I believe that everything shall be inclusive. The right to equal opportunities is the same for people with or without disability. As long as you are qualified and with the right credentials, there’s no stopping you to dream or aim high.

Sometimes, dreaming high may come with high costs. But to dream and do something about that dream is courage in itself. Perhaps, it’s the greatest challenge a person with disability can make – to be included like anyone else although I don’t fit stereotypes and all.

I would rather spend my time finding work in order to be independent. I would rather work than rely on others. It’s hard, I know but sometimes you have to try and check your limits.

As always, I would rather try than sit around. I would rather be me as uniquely and quietly as possible at work. I hope people like me can find that chance to prove that we are more than our disability – to realize that we are capable and differently-abled.

I’m not losing hope. I’m going to try further and I hope you do too. Try and try with hope and make things happen. Easy for me to say right? But in a judgmental world, may people’s eyes be open and give way for inclusion. Persons with disabilities deserve that. You deserve that!