Sunday Inspiration

This semester is wearing me out, this week has been rough, so I don’t have a lot to give you for Sunday Inspiration today. The best I can offer you is this:

Don’t be afraid to ask for help, don’t let your pride get the in way. I’ve written a few times in the last few months about my decision to go to disability services and ask for help at school. My requests may seem like small things to some. Some professors wouldn’t think twice about any of my requests and likely wouldn’t feel I need special accommodations to receive them; however, for others they are a big deal. No matter how small they may seem, it took a lot for me to ask for the help I needed. It took putting aside my pride, and that’s a big deal.

What have these accommodations meant for me this semester? They have meant that I’ve had what I needed. That when I can’t write, I can type a test. They mean that an instructor can’t tell me to take off my sunglasses when the light is bothering me, and next semester they mean that I’ll be able to record classes. Small things, but very big things for me.

The professor I was most worried about this semester has become one of my cheerleaders. I’ve for the most part turned in really great work in her class (and my others). When I asked her for a reference she was happy to provide it. She told me that she’d been worried about me when we first met, thought that I wouldn’t make it through the semester when we first discussed some of my health issues, but that I’d surprised her and surpassed her expectations. There’s a really good chance that I will end this semester when an A in that class, a class that few get As in and many end up dropping before the semester is over (we lost 1/4 of the class). Because of this class I can definitely say that I am now a better writer than I was 3 months ago. It’s been a lot of work but I’ve enjoyed it, even when I’ve hated it.

If I could share one lesson with you from all of this, it would be don’t give up. You can do more than you think you can do. You are stronger than you think you. Each week when I interview a different Fibro Warrior, that is one thing almost all of them say that they’ve learned from their illness “I am stronger than I thought I was”. We all have more to give if we dig a litter deeper than we think we do. Sometimes it may feel like we are giving everything we have to give (I know I’ve felt that way several times this semester), but we can keep going. We’ve got this.
[Tweet “#Spoonies We are all stronger than we think we are. When you feel like giving up, dig a little deeper.”]