Hello and welcome to my blog, The View From Down Here!!
Interesting name I hear you say, what’s the relevance?
Well I’m 27 years old, love TV boxsets, swim occasionally and just happen to be 3 foot 7 inches tall. That’s right, it’s not a typo, I’m 3 foot 7 due to being born with a form of dwarfism called pseudoachondroplasia. This means my bones weren’t able to grow like all the other ‘average height’ people, I’m short and my bones aren’t straight so walking more than a few feet is difficult so I also use an electric wheelchair, hurrah!
That’s all well and good but why the blog?
It’s been something I’ve been thinking about for quite some time now and for various reasons I managed to talk myself out of it but I’ve decided 2015 is the year of taking the bull by the horns so here I am doing just so. I’ve been told a few times that my perspective on the world and how it relates to my disability is a bit interesting so now I’ve decided to write about it.
**DISCLAIMER ALERT** I have been told a number of times by my friends that my thoughts and opinions make me an enigma. This is not necessarily a good thing. Often even I can’t second-guess what I will think about something and more often than not it completely contradicts my previous thought. So remember, this blog is my opinion, its not meant to offend and certainly isn’t there to be taken as statement of fact. Pure and simple it’s my opinion and totally open to debate. (Sorry just felt that needed to be said now before I get too deep into it!)
Here’s a bit of context. All of my family are able bodied, I went to a mainstream primary and secondary school and then took myself to University to study of all things… Theatre and Performance. Up until this point I had never mixed with or associated myself with disabled people so I essentially thought of myself as able bodied and ignored my differences. Its only since I started work that I began thinking about my disability and what I thought about it. I work for the company who trained the presenters and reporters for Channel 4’s coverage of the London 2012 Paralympic Games and also coordinate Channel 4’s big diversity entry-level scheme, which means I work closely with lots of disabled people on a daily basis and now class a lot of them as very good friends.
With that in mind, it means I think about disability, how it affects me and the people I work with, how it works with the world that we live in and how its represented in our society on a daily, if not hourly, basis. This has made me question and think about things in a way that I wouldn’t have thought about previously – hence the blog!
So what will I get from The View From Down Here then?
This isn’t a heavy political, I’M-GOING-TO-POINT-MY-FINGER-AT-YOU-AND-FROWN type thing and tell you all about how badly disabled people are treated but I’m also not going to sugar coat it. This is just the musings and observations of a 27 year-old… woman? I guess but I’m still very young at heart!
It’s all quite exciting really, who knows what I’m going to spout on about
So enjoy, share and send me your comments xx
This blog fills a void and promises to open my eyes. It is also straight, direct and clear. Thank you. I am excited.
[…] Let me remind you of my first blog that explains I tend not to play by the rules so it should come as no surprise that I don’t fit myself into the above description Welcome to The View From Down Here […]
[…] A week later, after having called the number from the letter and confirming I wanted to apply for PIP, my application form arrived in the post. This time there genuinely was a thump as it arrived because the form is HUGE! It’s 40 pages long asking questions that force you to dig deep into the pit of things you’ve buried and decided not to think about and just get on with life. If you’re new to the blog and don’t know me personally, my first post should give you a flavour of what I’m normally about: http://theviewfromdownhere.info/2015/02/09/welcome-to-the-view-from-down-here/ […]