Last week I talked about taking life for granted. In the past few months, I traveled a lot. I watch other people all the time. I think about their lives, I think about what issues they have, and mostly I think about what issues I have that they don’t.

On my way to the Philippines, the airline wanted to check my electric chair at the counter, something that’s never happened to me before. They provided me a manual wheelchair. They did not let me keep the chair once I got to the gate, so I was forced to sit there for an hour not being able to go to a restaurant or anything before my flight. Once in the Philippines, I did not get my request for a handicapped accessible room. In fact, there was only one hotel that had an adequate handicapped room on my entire trip to four different cities (three within the United States). There were many other issues I’m not going to get into because I don’t want to bum myself out.

I often wonder what it would be like to travel and not care about wheelchairs or handicapped rooms. Don’t feel bad for me, I had an amazing time. I only write this so next time you are in the airport or checking into a room, you can say to yourself, at least I don’t have to deal with what Sourena has to deal with. Do that for me! It doesn’t have to be some drawn out process, it can be five , ten seconds.

Every so often I look at each of my hands. My left hand can do many more things, such as driving my electric chair, dialing my old school cell phone, grasping a bar so I can get up out of my chair, and many more activities. My right hand can’t do any of these things. Every month or so, I take a step back and ask myself what it would be like if my left hand was like the right. Or, if I had less body control than I already do, how much harder would my life be?

I do have a very active, great life but what if I was more disabled than I am? What if my speech impediment was worse? Or I was mute altogether? I am grateful to be in the situation that I am. Yes, I take it for granted. Yes, I imagine what my life would be like without a disability. Yes, I have pity parties. But above all else, I’m grateful for everything that I do have , my parents, my family, and my friends.