Day 321

The only way to know if you’re on the right track is to check your inventory once in a while – that’s what I learned today

It’s 7: 54 PM on day 321 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to feed myself an oranges for breakfast, prepare and publish my Kid of the Week feature, brush my teeth, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no luck – feed myself avocado and oranges for dinner and brush my teeth once more.

This morning I was in the bathroom doing what people usually do in the bathroom and suddenly it occurred to me that I wasn’t making progress with regards to becoming more independent so I decided to grade my own report card. Take a look:

Reflections of the past 321 days: Self-assessment

• To push myself around on my wheelchair – needs more practise most of the time I’m too lazy so I ask my family to wheel me around

• To get in and out of bed by myself – not yet attempted because my parents are always around and even if they weren’t I would be too afraid to try because I fall and break my bones

• To go to the bathroom by myself– again not yet attempted because my parents are always around and even if they weren’t I would be too afraid to try because I fall and break my bones

• To bathe myself – attempted/needs more practice – I tried two days ago when my mother was in the hospital with my brother but since I can’t bend my back because there’s a metal rod in it – I had Scoliosis – that proved to be difficult

• To undress and redress myself – attempted/needs more practice – sometimes I can only get one hand out a sleeve other times it’s both and on a really good I can take my whole shirt off

• To brush my teeth – partially achieved – I can brush my teeth just fine but I need someone to help me lean over the sick so that the toothpaste ends up in the sink and not all over my shirt

• To sign my name on a document (I never write anything out I always use a computer/laptop) – achieved sort of/needs more practice – I signed for my debit card and it was accepted bt when I signed to renew my passport it was denied

• To type with both hands – needs more practice – I have been typing with only my left hand so long that it’s hard to break

• To eat and drink by myself – partially achieved/needs more practice – I can feed myself with a spoon and drink from a mug but feeding myself with a fork and knife and drinking from a glass (because it has no handle) is still difficult

Are we connecting on Twitter? If not, say hi at http://twitter.com/Nisha360

If you’ve given to my cause or you can’t give now, please help me by sharing my cause with others. You can tweet about it like my friend Stan Faryna. This is the tweet he uses: @Nisha360 is a brave, smart young woman trying to make a better world for us all. Please help her do an amazing thing. http://bit.ly/hC7vOu

Stan’s very sweet for saying so, but feel free to write what reflects you best.

Thanks to all my friends out there who are helping me make my dream come true: to make a better world for all of us!