15 Annoying Things Strangers Have Said About My Disability
I have osteogenesis imperfecta, and sometimes people say really irritating things to me! Here are a few of them.
1. “Mommy, it talks!” — a 6-year-old after I politely said hi when I caught her staring at me.
2. “How did you get that way?” Uhh… Depends on what you believe.
3. “Does it hurt to break a bone?” What do you think? How about I run over your toes with this 400 pound wheelchair and we’ll see how you feel.
4. “It’s eating chicken wings all by itself!” — Exclaimed by an old lady to an entire food court in a mall.
5. “What a cute baby!” Dude, I’m pretty sure I could teach you curse words you never knew existed. Can your baby do that? I hope not.
6. “Can you stand up so I can pat you down?” — TSA agent. Do you think I’d be in this $78,000 wheelchair if I could?
7. “How old is she?” Directed at my aide while I’m sitting right there. Right there. This happens all the time unfortunately. I’m short, not mute!
8. “Can you have an intimate relationship?” Asked in front of an entire college biology class I was giving a talk to. I mean, I wouldn’t tell you one way or another!
9. “Can I kiss you?” Remember, these are from strangers. Uhh, no!
10. “Would you like to start off with a Shirley Temple?” Asked by a waitress when I was 25 and wearing a strapless shirt and make-up. I promptly answered, “Sure, if you add vodka to it.”
11. “Look, it drives itself!” Yeah, “it” does.
12. “Let me get you a children’s menu.” Let me get you a conk on the head.
13. “Oh you poor thing.” Only monetarily, ma’am. If you’d like to help me, I take donations to my concert-going fund.
14. “You’re going to choke if you eat laying down.” Really? 28-plus years and I’ve only semi-choked once… sitting up. I feel like I got this.
15. “You are so adorable.” And they mean that in the 5-year-old way. I’ll show you adorable…
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Thinkstock image via iStock.
I’m a graphic designer and artist living in New Orleans, Louisiana. I graduated from Loyola University with a BA in graphic design and currently run my own art and design business, KAK ART & Designs. I began painting when I was about five years old when my mother gave me my first watercolor set. Through the years, I was fortunate to have some extremely gifted artists as friends and teachers, and developed my skill and style to what it is today. As you can see, I have a passion for animals and almost exclusively feature them in my work. However, there is a reason for the term “starving artist,” so I quickly decided that graphic design would be the right “day job” for me. It still allows me to be creative, but, let’s face it, it pays the bills a bit better. Oh, one minor detail I left out – I have a genetic bone disease called Osteogenesis Imperfecta. Basically, it’s a fancy term that means that my bones break easily and don’t grow correctly. I’m a whopping two-foot-seven inches in height and use a very specialized electric wheelchair for mobility. As you can imagine, growing up I was not able to participate in a lot of the activities my friends did, so art was a nice out for me. While they were outside playing baseball, football, soccer, and softball, I was inside learning about composition, shading, color, and new media. There were still times I wished I could be with my friends, but art definitely helped. I started my business just before graduating college in 2011, and today help both businesses and individuals with their graphic design needs. This includes everything from posters to invitations to websites to social media imagery. I also paint, and my watercolor pet portraits are sort of my specialty. And in my “spare time” (ha ha), I create jewelry designs with semi-precious and precious gemstones, freshwater pearls, sterling silver, and 24K gold. All real stuff, all the time! You can find my jewelry designs and any original art I have for sale on my Etsy site! Please also check out my blog at lookingupblog.com!
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