Live Outside The Box

Hello once again fine people,

I hope everybody studied their Pantera lyrics, along with the subject matter of the last article because there will be a test! Haha.

For this quarter’s article, I have chosen to strategically dismember the stereotype of what you shouldn’t, and should be, or what you’re supposed to do with your life, if you have a medical diagnosis such as cerebral palsy, or anything else. That’s why this quarter’s musical stylings are Alice in Chains’ “Man in the Box.” It’s the ultimate song about censorship, especially for people like me, who aren’t allowed to be who they are, without hearing the phrase, “Don’t you know you have, (insert your medical diagnosis here), and how are you going to do that?” at every turn.

Yes I know I have it, but I don’t care like I said in the first article. I’ve learned to make it work, make the best of what I have, and adapt so that I can be as productive of a member of society as everybody else, even though I may go about it in a different way physically. I use the internet to compensate a lot for not being able to walk under my own power, but I can with assistance. That’s how I submit my creative material to various places, and people. I love it when people question if I’m depressed because I’m thinking, when do I have time to be depressed, especially for those of you that have read my previous articles? On top of that I have to keep up with the daily grind that is football. Hehe. While other people see just looking at the computer all day, my body and brain feel like I’ve worked 12- hour days per week for seven days a week.

I’m here to tell you that I’ve been living outside the box my whole life, and I am unapologetically proud of it. I don’t do things because other people expect them of me, and I don’t do things because that’s what society told me I should be, and furthermore, I certainly don’t do things that I’m not 100% comfortable with. I study the subjects I want, listen to the music I like, and attempt to date the women I like, even though they are perceived to be out of my league etc. It all comes down to one thing. I’m only interested in being the first Brad Freeman at all times. I’m not able to explain it. It’s just my natural personality, and part of my uniqueness.

Life is too short. You can’t be afraid to make your mark on the world when the opportunity arises by being the most authentic version of yourself that you can be. You can’t live your life in fear of what other people think. You have to live it for you. You can’t be what others want you to be, and when they want you to be it. The only person you have to worry about pleasing ultimately, when you go to bed at night, is yourself. When teachers, parents, friends, random people, and even significant others that you’re in romantic relationships with doubt you, and tell you, “you can’t, you won’t, and you’re never going to, and you’re taking too long for my lack of patience, so just quit!” You have to be stubborn enough to believe in yourself, your ability, and what you’re doing with your life to the point where nothing, and no one once so ever will stop you. In the face of everything, you have to feel like everything you do, and everything you are as a person, is undoubtedly going to be a success. In other words, achieve greatness and become the very personification of excellence from the moment you roll out of bed in the morning until you lay your head down on the pillow at night! It can’t just merely be a state of mind. It has to be a way of life. This is how you become a winner at life!

Whatever your goals are in life, NEVER, and I mean NEVER EVER give up your hopes and dreams because others told you to, especially those who are perceived to have authority, and power over what you do because they feel that whatever you have medically, makes you less of a person in their eyes. Don’t ever be embarrassed, or ashamed for being your own unique individual. There’s only one version of you. Stop worrying about being someone else, and be the first version of you.

I really do speak from personal experience. I’ve heard it all. It started when I was a child. He can’t go to regular public school. He has to go to a specialty school for other kids with “disabilities”. Then as a teenager, he wants to go to college? No, he needs to go to a group home because he won’t study what we want him to. When I couldn’t be swayed, these authority figures called my mom.  My mom responded, “I don’t tell Bradley what to do, say, think, or feel. Have you ever heard the boy talk?” I’ve heard similar things during college, and after college. Whenever people in power or authority can’t get me to change my mind, they accuse me of not having a mind of my own, and not being aware enough to know what is best for me. Only they seem to know what’s best for me, even though I live it every day. To this day, mom and I have no idea why people do that. I realize that they are taught a one size fits all application of people with “disabilities,” and as many of you have come to figure out, Brad Freeman isn’t the stereotype. I don’t want to make it sound like all people of importance are like that. The people out there reading this must learn that we’re individuals, just like they are. We all don’t meet the clinical definition of “disability.” I assure you. Look at me as your proof.

So in closing, let me ask everybody this. Why is it that when you have some sort of medical diagnosis such as cerebral palsy, why do certain people, think they know better than you what’s best for you, and then try to put you in a box of what you’re supposed to be, like you need to be saved from yourself? In my case, with my cerebral palsy, it all depends on the level of severity. The palsy, or paralysis, was brought on by a lack of oxygen, which caused my brain to be underdeveloped along the cerebral cortex. Some of us are able to walk, and talk, while some of us are not able to walk, and/or talk. Some of us are able to write, such as myself, but others are not. As it applies to me, I’m able to handwrite, and type, but it takes me a long time physically, and becomes tiring like working out. This is why I use voice-activated software to compensate. I speak and think faster than I write obviously.

I’ve always found the box to be quite limiting personally. Live outside the box because I don’t know if you realize this, but you don’t have to be in the mold that everybody else lives by, instead you should always try to be the person that broke the mold, when you were born.

I’ve been breaking the mold since the day I was born. If I did it, why can’t you?