.labels.

I suppose that this post stems from a reading assignment for class which means I was being productive AND reading for my classes which created this thought in my head, hence the post. I am still really caught up in the wonderfulness of my weekend at BW. It was seriously just loads of fun and the more I think about it, the more I realize how eye-opening it has been to become part of this "BW family".

This post stems from reading an article from the American Journal of OT from 1980. We were reading research about adults with ID (intellectual disability) but in this article, the author kept referring to the people as "mentally retarded adults". I was seriously getting mad at this article and I can't IMAGINE how people EVER thought it would be okay to label people like that, despite the fact that the article was written 30 years ago. Hmph. Not okay, especially after I had just come off of an awesome weekend. To outsiders, I'm sure almost all of our campers are stereotyped and judged because of the fact that they use a wheelchair or they don't speak fluently or they are unable to take care of themselves independently. Knowing that labels have been put on my camper friends is frustrating. It's unfortunate how our society gets so caught up making judgments based on the way someone looks or someone's abilities.

On the way home from camp I heard the song, 'Something to Say' by Matthew West. SO true. It only takes a few seconds to sit down with a camper before you realize that despite what they might look like, these adults are ready to ask you all about yourself and have a full conversation with you. Granted, some conversations are quite slow, but really to quote the song, "if you're living, if you're breathing, you've got something to say". I suppose its just really been on my heart recently after a conversation with one of my camper roommates today via Facebook stalker chat. After she asked me if I missed her yet (complete sarcasm, of course) and she started asking me about how I was feeling and if my back was okay after the weekend (side note: we all did a bazillion transfers over the weekend and basically we were all pretty sore by the time Sunday morning came). How could someone overlook a person who is so capable of caring, loving, talking, and joking?! Honestly, unless you knew who was on the other end of the Facebook chat, you would have had NO clue to the fact that the person has a disability.

I am ultimately thankful to the Creator once again for placing such a wonderful place in my life. I can't even begin to describe how I have been changed by the people I've met in the last 9 months. More so, I thank Him for giving me eyes for allowing me to love people the way He designed them. I suppose that it is blatantly obvious that I have a passion for working with individuals with disabilities and I think that is all I have to say about this post.