It's all about multitasking ... easier said than done!
I always knew that going to University whilst running CP Teens UK was going to make time tight, but, oh my, it's getting a tad crazy! Don't worry, I'm not complaining for one minute, I always said 'I'd make it work', and I always will. But, an hour to watch TV at the moment wouldn't go a miss! It always makes me laugh when I'm in lectures & seminars, and my phone is vibrating with emails constantly ... I swear people are sat there like "what the...?!". My phone has tourettes, obviously.
I have actually realised how much I am missing my old TA from school. For starters, she knew me inside-out! It's true that small things make big differences. It sounds really stupid, but she used to file all of my notes for me. When I get home each night, I spend about half an hour filing notes, I could ask my Mum but I'm just too stubborn! I've got no one to 'stress out' too! We used to go up to our little room in the school and put the world to rights, which quite often ended up in laughing fits! She wrote down everything I had to do and managed my time. Now, I know obviously University is different - you're not meant to have that 'adult figure' there virtually holding your hand. But, forget the relationship we had for a second, it's having physical effects, for example, I physically cannot write things down, so I am mentally trying to remember the 'homework' (I don't know if it's actually called 'homework' at University?!), and my head is actually going to explode! Again, on the time-management side, although I am quite good at it, that extra bit of guidance was invaluable. Yes, again, at University, I appreciate you're meant to not have an adult figure standing there managing your time, but I (apparently!) work 8 times slower than an able-bodied person, so her help, as I said, was invaluable.
I also miss the physio room with the Wii, hot chocolate and music ... just saying, haha! Unless you were a student with a physical disability at my school, you didn't even know this room existed! I think it's fair to say that not a lot of physio actually got done! I hope they've still got my Mii (avatar) on the console, there will be trouble if I've been deleted when I visit!
Anyway, back to CP Teens UK. My next job is to write a mission statement now we're going for charity status, as ever, I just need to find time! I am hoping to get this done in the next couple of weeks, and I will release it onto here as soon as it's ready. The mission statement will outline what CP Teens UK is going to do as a charity and how it is going to help all of you!
A lot of you have said that you like hearing about my little University scenarios related to Cerebral Palsy, so I have some more for you! For the last 2 Fridays, I have been right at the top of my campus, which for starters, is quite a long walk. At the end of the walk, there are sets of 2 steps, and they are steep, they don't have a rail, and they're outside so they've been wet from the rain. Usually I wouldn't think twice about a couple of steps, but these things combined, I was in for a 'treat'! Anyway, I put my right leg onto the first step expecting my left leg just to follow as normal ... I literally couldn't do it! I was stood there like 'what is going on?!' and I was like 'I bet I look like the biggest idiot stood here like some sort of flipping flamingo!'. I decided I was just going to have to take a 'leap of faith' and see what happened. To be honest, I don't quite know what happened, but I got up ... I wanted a medal presentation there & then!
On Thursday, we did a cricket coaching session and I had the bat and my tutor was throwing the ball. I texted one of my best friends that 'I was in possession of a cricket bat', and her reply was, 'Oh dear god, does your tutor know your history with cricket bats?!' ... erm, nope! ... I kind of knocked another child out when we were in Year 4 by accident! In my defence, I could hardly walk in Year 4, let alone control a cricket bat, but the text did have me in stitches!
The other night, CP Sport, was on The One Show. A boy called Matthew is doing the Rickshaw Challenge for them in conjunction with Children In Need. The Rickshaw Challenge involves 6 young people with disabilities riding a rickshaw down the UK, arriving live at Children In Need on the 14th November. There is a rumour going around that clips will be used from CP Sport events, such as the competitions ... so, keep your eyes peeled for me and all my athletics friends (cringe!)! It's fantastic that CP Sport is being supported though, it's an organisation/charity very close to my heart!
As it's now winter, there are no competitions and I think I'm in some sort of depression about it! I miss everyone! Because of the way the classification system works, at competitions, you're with people with a very similar disability to you (quite rare when you have Cerebral Palsy as it can be such a broad disability), and the girls in my classification, and the boys actually, are close. We keep in touch over the winter, which is nice! We always have a laugh at competions - in June, we were in Doncaster, and all the F32's (my classification) were competing at 9am. We all turned up, and Tom, a male F32 (obviously with a name like Tom!) said at the top his voice "who the bloodyhell decided to get all the F32's up at the crack of sparrow-fart, don't they know people with CP need sleep and lots of it?!"
On Tuesday night, 2 of my closest friends came round, Megan & Joe, who took me to my first ever festival back in August. Megan is absolutely great, if anyone ever leaves me out on the basis I have Cerebral Palsy, she absolutely hits the roof! I'll clean it up for the benefit of the website, but she basically says 'I'm going to punch their lights out!'! Joe is Megan's boyfriend, and he's fantastic too! When we were at the festival in August, Joe ensured I was well looked after. He carried my chair everywhere, held my drink all of the time and even made a extendable straw so I could just bend down for a drink which was hilarious! We found this cup the other day, which we are going to purchase for next year's festival!...
Simple explanation - I have CP. I can't hold glasses without a lid. I need a straw to drink. I like wine. ... perfect cup!
