Rolling Into a Fourth-Grade Classroom

“Hey, you were here last year. Welcome back!” the receptionist said as I handed her my ID. The glass between us was solid, protective—meant to stop a shooter if it ever came to that. I can’t enter a school without identification, which is exactly as it should be. Still, the thought always gives me pause as the buzzer sounds and the door opens.

“How are you?” they all asked once the security measures were behind us.

“I’ve been good.”

Nora peeked her head in.

“I’m so excited!” she said.

“Me too!” I replied.

I was going to speak about the movie Out of My Mind to fourth graders today. Nora is one of my good friends, and this is one of my favorite speeches of the year. We walked to her classroom, which was colorfully decorated and focused on positivity. We quickly caught up.

The fourth-grade class filed in and sat in their assigned seats. Nora introduced me, and I took over.

“Hi boys and girls! I’m so glad to be here! My name is Hannah, and I came just to talk to you today. I’m going to talk to you about my life and my disability—and, of course, about Out of My Mind.

I was born with something called cerebral palsy. I can’t walk or talk because of it. I can walk if someone helps me, but otherwise, I use my wheelchair. Because I have a disability, people come and help me. They help with taking me to the restroom, feeding me, washing my face at bedtime, putting me in bed, dressing me in the morning, and putting on my pajamas at night.

I may not be able to walk or talk, but I’m so happy to say that I graduated from college, have a job, and live a really happy life—even though I’m in a wheelchair. I sound a lot like Melody, right? Melody needs help like me. However, we have different lives, and I’ll talk about that throughout our time together.”

I have given this speech for ten years, and it never gets old. To refresh your memory, Out of My Mind is about a fourth-grade girl who has cerebral palsy and uses a communication device to speak. Sound familiar? It’s very familiar to me.

The kids ask questions at the end of my speech. These were some of them this year:

• Did the kids hurt your feelings in school? I always say it hurt to be ignored by my peers.
• Can you program your own communication device? Yes!
• Do you have friends now? Yes! I have friends who love me for who I am, which is priceless!

Their questions always make me smile—and think. Each year, I’m reminded how much I’ve changed since high school. Thank goodness life gets bigger and better after high school!

Have a Wonderful Month, 

Hannah!  

January...

Instagram. For those of you who are not on that platform, I’ve been doing daily videos since December 2^nd. They range from educating people about my disability to simply hoping people have a good day. It’s hard work thinking of ideas every day so if you have an idea, let me know. I’ve uploaded a small amount of content to YouTube also.

I did speak to a class at Elmhurst University. It was on disability awareness. I changed it up and told them a story about a difficult week in my life. It was about caregivers calling off and what that means for me. I liked being vulnerable and sharing the not so sparkly side of life. The class had a positive reaction to my story. You can see little snippets from the Q&A on Instagram.

I was supposed to have multiple speeches this month. The majority were canceled due to weird reasons such as illness, cars not starting, and snow days for schools. I hope Mother Nature calms down in February. I have always hated January and this January was no exception. I’m ready to welcome the month of love (and pink) in.

💓,

Hannah!

Dystonia and Storytelling

You know the gang from Friends or How I Met Your Mother? My parents have that type of friend group. They are the most fantastic humans. Some of them literally were in the hospital room with my mother. They were watching All My Children with Mom experiencing contractions. I was coming! That day, I became part of a friend group that I would admire all my life. From begging to go on girl’s nights and Mom saying, “No, you have fun with Dad, OK?” Even at six years old, I knew those girl’s nights had to be more fun than having a bowl of Special K with Dad for dinner. Sometimes, he would take me swimming and I knew that at least rivaled the fun they were having-at least in my six-year-old mind. My point being my parent’s friends are a second family. When I got the chance to tell a story from my memoir in front of them, it was a blast!

We were at Fitzgerald’s, a bar outside of Chicago. Maureen, a redheaded woman is the founder of Voicebox. This is a storytelling event for artists. My Uncle Gary has performed at this event for years.
He encouraged me to participate and after a little encouragement, I agreed. 

This is an excerpt from my story. These are some of my inner thoughts as I roll around Loyola back in 2018:

“It’s late September so thankfully I don’t need a coat. Coats will always be hard because I cannot take them on or off by myself. In the winter, I typically get from one building to another without a coat just by going super-fast. Typically, I’m questioned about my coat at least 300 times per winter. Able-bodied people will say, “It’s cold,” or my favorite, “You should have a coat on.” Easy for you to say when you have the ability to shrug a coat on and off. I do not have that ability. You are stopping me to point out the fact that it’s cold is just creating more time outside for me. I get that you have good intentions, but you are a barrier to warmth by stopping me.”

The truth is simply funny. This story will be published in March. I’m beyond thrilled! I'll keep you updated.

My mom’s girlfriends, Jet, and Margie came out for a Dystonia fundraiser. They are so supportive. We walked around Brookfield Zoo wearing our tee shirts for Dystonia.

As most of you saw on social media, I had the privilege of speaking at the cathedral in Joliet. They brought the 5^th graders from several schools. It was the first day of a three-part series. I cannot wait for the second day which is in January. The kids at my church recognized me and said hello this weekend. It was so cute!

I’m busy and loving life!

 Happy Halloween,

Hannah!