Um, for anyone who struggles with assimilation and knowing the journey you've been on, what could you share that might make it a little bit easier for someone who's struggling to be a bit more of themselves?

Yeah.

Uh, I guess I'll share, I'll share three things.

Now I'm trying to remember if I have the three things.

Uh, but, um, the first that kinda came to mind was, and I share this in the first chapter of The Anti-Ableist Manifesto, is this concept called semantic satiation.

Uh, and essentially semantic satiation is the more that you say a word that perhaps has some charged meaning to it, uh, the more that you say it, it kinda loses that power over time.

And I relate that over, it's probably not a direct correlation, but, um, if you needed a concept to, to hold it in, uh, is that I still remember the first time I shared the story of the car accident publicly, and I cried or shared it through tears.

Um, so I'd love for you to maybe talk a little bit about y- your journey, your journey in terms of career rejection, if you faced career rejection, and if you have any advice for listeners who are struggling to get noticed in the workplace.

And

I have such vivid memories of those birthday parties.

And then I became disabled.

And I will say that for almost 20 years after I became disabled, I almost did no physical activity.

I just said disabled body and...

Being physically well or fit seemed to be mutually exclusive to me.

I've now unlearned that.

What do you think though, what does that mean to you that you don't like being watched climbing?

'Cause a lot of our followers are surfers, what first drew you to surfing? What has it revealed about yourself that you didn't expect?

Yeah.

You know, so I, I will rewind and say that I have memories of almost drowning in my family home swimming pool when I was a kid.

And for those who are unfamiliar with my story, I was involved in a car accident when I was nine, and permanently paralyzed one of my arms.

I broke a couple bones in one of my legs, so I was a temporary wheelchair user for about four months.

Stayed in the hospital for three weeks.

My dad also passed away in the accident.

Mm.

What is Diversability?

Yeah.

So first I'll just share a little bit of my why for your listeners, in case they're not familiar with me.

So I, uh, at the age of nine on a car ride home with my dad and a couple of my siblings, he lost control of the car, and I acquired a handful of injuries and disabilities, including permanently paralyzing one of my arms.

I broke a couple bones in one of my legs, so I was a temporary wheelchair user for about four months.

And then much later I'd be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, which is a type of mental health disability.

And for the 10-plus years after I became disabled, I didn't really tell anyone about it.

So what, what's your advice in that instance? I think that's a big part of what stymies the process.