Treat Others As If You Would Yourself

Imagine that one day you are strolling through the hallways of Parkrose saying “hi” and “bye” to familiar faces and it is just another regular day of school for you. The next day you arrive at school, people start giving you different looks and asks what in the world happened to you because they see that you have an injury. People you don’t even know give you different looks than you would normally receive. The way people treat you is totally different now and it’s all because of your injury.

During the month of April I had a broken wrist. When I came to school the first thing people asked me was, “Who the heck beat you up?” or “What happened to you?” I would tell them the story about how I accidentally slipped during tennis practice and then the expressions on their faces would totally change.

As the days went on the way people treated me began to change. During class, I wouldn’t be able to write down a single word, so I had to ask my friends for help. I tried to do things all by myself, but I lacked the ability to be able to do some things left-handed. Some people saw this as me trying to torture my friends or just being lazy. Now how would that work if I couldn’t write with my left hand at all? I would rather be able to write and do things for myself, especially things that I am normally capable of doing.

To some people I was a pathetic “crippled girl” that needed everybody to do things for me. To others I was one big joke. I was neither of these things. I was a big red target for people to joke around with. Some people thought that it would be funny to call me names like “crippled” and “deform girl.” Sure I laughed at it, but it didn’t mean that it wasn’t really hurting me. I would laugh just to make the people, who thought that I was a big joke, think they have accomplished making a joke out of me and leave me alone. But it just didn’t go as I thought it would. More people became part of these practical jokes and continued it until the day I took my cast off.

I hated how people treated me differently just because I was injured. Sure I wasn’t capable of doing some of the things that I use to be able to do, but I was still me and capable of doing things myself.

For one month I tried not to sulk in the misery of having one arm, but it was hard to do at times. I tried my best to live each day like I would normally do, but it was really hard when people had to give me a hard time. They would give me crude comments that I would try to ignore, but wasn’t successful in doing because they were so persistent.

I realized that if I had reported people were harassing me I could have ended it. However, I have experienced harassment all my life because something about me has stood out and made me different. I realized that reporting it doesn’t always work. I would try confronting the person and telling them how they make me feel. If that didn’t work I would ask one of my friends to help me out.

After I got my cast off people cease to call me these names. It’s funny how people think they could pick on the weak. I now know how people with disabilities are treated differently. People always say that you shouldn’t be treated differently because they are different. If so, why was I treated the way I was with my disability?

-Ngô Hải Vi