Hope for the Future
My name is Gabriella and I have a neuro-muscular disorder that affects my mobility and I use a wheelchair to get around. From as far back as I can remember, I have always been associated with Bloorview Kids Rehab, I’ve spent countless hours with the dedicated staff and volunteers as my family and I went through some of the hardest times of our lives. If it wasn’t for all their hard work, I could have never come as far as I have today.
When I was younger, I used to fear growing up, thinking I would never live what society deemed a “normal” life. I thought my adulthood would be spent struggling to do daily tasks of living and never experiencing things that able-bodied people my age would. I thought I was doomed to live in the shadows of my own life. Then came The Independence Program (TIP) at Bloorview.
I attended TIP and the impact it had on me plays out in my everyday life. The program showed me the door to my own independence, a door that was always there, but I just couldn’t see it. Within those short three weeks, I learned valuable lessons that will be with me a long as I live. Nothing can take those experiences away from me and I am a much better person because of it. The program gives young adolescents, like me, hope and faith. Hope for the future and faith in ourselves for being all we can be.
Gabriella is in fourth year university at York University in Psychology and a joint program in Rehabilitation Studies at Seneca.
