How you treat people and the morals you were taught growing up all depend on the family you were in. Luckily, in a weird sense, I was blessed with a grandpa that has his right leg paralyzed. When I was little, his house was the one I would go to after school or whenever my parents worked. We would go on his day to day errands and anything to keep him busy. Being able to see everything he has to go through puts me into situations that most kids aren’t able to experience without grandparents in his position. 

The pain I saw him go through continuously taught me that everything is a mindset. Being able to carry yourself in a normal day life while handicapped takes strength, yet every day, I saw him push through it and always with his humor in hand. This taught me that no matter what life puts me in, I have to overcome it. It’s your attitudes in tough situations that create the outcomes you will have. When you think you will, is when you actually will.

Another way I feel lucky to have a man like that in my life, is by opening my mind to accepting people who are different from you. For example, for some people when they see those with disabilities their first instinct is to make jokes. For me, my instinct is to understand they are human too, and honestly I believe they are stronger than most! It’s not their looks, but their mentality that creates who they are. Thus, has made them more mature. It has taught me to associate with people with good morals and not popularity or looks. 

Reflecting on my childhood, it makes me feel like my grandpa has helped to soar as a better human. I feel as a completely better human having him in my life then how I would be if he wasn’t. It was as if I was blessed to be opened to this at such an early age.