139: Building Communities with Dignity and Respect

So I guess today we're just wanting to share and talk about the community of disabilities and the world of disabilities and the impact that it's had for me personally.

So I originally got involved in speech therapy really because of my love of language and just the power that I feel communication has and the power that words can have on transforming lives.

So I think a lot about poetry, books, powerful speeches, and just how they have the ability to completely change people's perspectives and transform a whole room with some of the things that people can say or how even just like a couple of words that someone can say to you will just linger for years.

And so I took that love and found speech therapy and I just feel that communication is a basic human right that everyone inherently deserves to have access to the ability to communicate and share their world with people.

So some of the things that I love about working within the world of disabilities, first and foremost, is the community of people that I get to work with.

I love the community that I'm surrounded by.

I love educators, therapists, doctors, caseworkers, educators.

And of course, more than anything, the children and the families that I get to work with every day.

It's just the type of community that I want to see perpetuated everywhere.

I feel surrounded by people who are committed to connecting with each other.

Surrounded by parents, teachers, siblings, community members of people who just continue to reach out to each other, despite how hard that can be some days.

So like right now, I get to go into different daycare centers.

I get to go into families' homes.

And that's because people allow me to do that.

And that's that kind of connection that...

You know, that I just feel and see every day that people want to reach each other and we want to connect with each other.

You know, and I rarely experience situations like sometimes daycares, you know, it is kind of like a requirement for us to work together.

But I don't ever feel like that is forced.

I don't ever feel like anyone is resistant to that connection and to that collaboration.

Yeah.

You know, and I love it because I feel like I see parents and families and teachers who show up every day and sometimes through some, you know, really extremely emotionally challenging and vulnerable situations.

You know, sometimes people are kind of feeling at the end of their end of the line or kind of into their rope and they still show up.

And continue to reach and continue to make those connections.

And a lot of times or what I see is that's just because this is a group of people who wants to see people succeed.

They want to see their children succeed.