Do It Myself Blog – Glenda Watson Hyatt

Watching last night’s 6 o’clock news, I knew we were in for a wind storm. I’m not sure what it is about the spot where we live; the transformers must be in vulnerable positions or something. When there are wind warnings for the Lower Mainland, we typically lose power.

While Darrell was putting an early supper on the table, I sent the following tweet at precisely 6:39:17:

The power went out by 7. Thankfully, we were pretty much finished supper by then. We grabbed our handy flashlights, including the hand-crank light/radio from my Dad, which we hadn’t used yet.

With no computers and no television and with Friday night being "Us" night anyway, we decided to go to bed and listen to Delilah until Darrell got tired of cranking the radio. (Thanks Dad, that worked great!)

I don’t mind thunder and lightening. I tolerate the endless pouring rain (from inside). But I really don’t like the wind! I cringed every time it howled and made Darrell hold me, close.

With the beginning of the winter season, it is time for Darrell and I to begin hibernating, except for necessary trips out. Power outages are more than a mere inconvenience for us. Living on the third floor, we rely on the elevator to get home. No power, no elevator. If we (or one of us) happen to be out when the power goes out, then we are stranded. And, there are our power chairs that need power to go! Darrell uses his manual wheelchair inside, so he is ok, and with no elevator he won’t need his power chair to go out. But I use my small scooter inside. If the power outage lasts for a day or more, I could be hooped. (Note to self: start charging this chair nightly.)

Please forgive if we don’t accept many invitations at this time of year. Going out in the dark, cold, rain and wind isn’t safe. Forget snow!

Saturday I received an interview request from Fernanda for an assignment for her Masters degree in Applied Disability Studies at Brock University. I concurred. I asked if I could share the interview with my blog readers. She concurred.

1. How was your parents’ reaction when they found out that their baby had Cerebral Palsy?

Initially, they were understandably shocked with the complications of my birth and the following few days. Then they were fairly matter-of-fact; this is the situation, what do we do to make the most of it? The official diagnosis came later. By then, they knew I had some kind of disability. Mom might have even known it was cp. The diagnosis gave them confirmation and a label that Mom then began researching at the medical library at the University of British Columbia where she was a student – she was in Education, getting her specialty in Special Education.

2. How was the support from the rest of your family?

My family has always been very supportive. I’m not sure my Grandma (my Dad’s mom) fully understood, but she did accept me in her own way.

3. Did your parents have any kind of difficulty to register you in a regular school?

I began my schooling in a special education class and was gradually integrated into a regular class. Beginning in Grade Eight, I attended our local high school. Near the end of Grade Seven, I went through some testing with the school psychologist, which I didn’t think was fair since my fellow classmates didn’t have to go through the same testing. The results were to convince the high school staff that I was capable of handling the regular curriculum. Once I began Grade Eight and had proven what I was capable of, their concerns dissipated. Being on the Honour Roll my first semester clinched it.

4. Did you have any problem to be accepted in your school and/or in your community?

For the most part, I didn’t have a problem with other kids teasing me in high school. When I started in Brownies back in elementary school, the girls fought over who would push my small red wheelchair. They saw it as a special privilege. A few friendships from high school and Brownies/Girl Guides still exist today. Those ones are dear to me.

5. Did you ever asked why me?

No, no really; at least not for any length of time. I see my cerebral palsy as something that is. No amount of crying and self-pity is going to change that fact. I might as well as get on with it and make the most of what I do have. There is so much I can do; I try to focus on that.

6. In your daily life, you face challenges all the time, simple things that we take for granted like open the door, turn the lights off and other rather mundane tasks constitute a challenge for you. Where do you find strength to fight and don’t get bitter?

Yes, simple things can be frustrating, even extremely frustrating at times. I keep trying until I get it or find a way around it. Otherwise, I would be sitting in the dark!

In the really tough moments, I think about my Nanna (my Mom’s mom). She had bone cancer. She crawled up and down the old wood stairs to do the laundry in the basement. I figure if she could do that, then I deal with my minute frustration or pain in the moment.

7. Can you tell me if you had any kind of situation in your life that made you feel really angry and/or upset with society?

Searching for a job was tough. All of my life, I had been told to try my best and to work hard, and that I could do anything I wanted. My disability didn’t matter. But when I went for interviews, it felt like the employers couldn’t see beyond my disability to see my abilities, skills and talents. They didn’t give me the opportunity to try and to prove what I could do. That really hurt and was very discouraging.

8. What do you think that politicians and big companies should do to help people with disability feel included in our society?

There is so much they could do to include people with disabilities in society. Briefly, two main areas are:

• accessibility, in every possible way – from infrastructure (buildings, transportation and community planning) to health care, to web accessibility, to access to services, to product development, to the electoral process and the list goes on; and
• meaningful job creation and employment, with adequate supports and opportunities for further training and career advancement.

9. When did you have the idea to write your autobiography?

When I was ten, I read books like Joni, Other Side of the Mountain and Ice Castles, which about people with disabilities; actually, young women with disabilities. At that time, they were my only role models with disabilities. I decided that one day I would share my life to help others in a similar way. Thirty years later I self-published I’ll Do It Myself.

10. What makes you feel free?

Driving in my scooter with the sun and a big smile on my face – and plenty of accessible sidewalk!

With Darrell out again yesterday, I continued what I began last Saturday: cleaning up my office. My plan is to have the entire office completely purged, organized and cleaned by the end of November. Then, I can begin on another room, likely the bedroom – not that I will be blogging it!

Once my office is done, then I want to begin planning 2009, which will be even better than 2008 here on Do It Myself Blog. If you have any suggestions for improving or changing the blog or ideas for blog posts, I’m all ears! Monetizing the blog will definitely be part of the plan. 

For now, the first step is to get my office in order to enable great, creative ideas to flow easily! Continuing with the bookcase area, first up was to go through two 3" binders: one from the Creative Employment Options Program (a pre-employment program for people with disabilities) and one from the Self-Employment Program.

The first item I came across in the SE binder was the Personal Organization Self-Analysis Quiz. What do you mean I disorganized, not goal-oriented, have poor work habits and note-taking skills, and a touch of packrat syndrome? A packrat? Moi? Because I took the SE Programs in the Fall of 1998 and, ten years later, still had all of the stuff? Nah, I like to think that I’ve been too focused on running my business to take time to clean out old papers!

For another interesting tidbit, I re-discovered was my personality type. According to different assessments taken during both programs, I am an INFJ – Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Judging. (Thank goodness results from both programs were the same!)

Glancing through the related career exploration pages, suggested careers for INFJs include:

• Psychologists
• Public relations workers and publicity writers
• Lawyers and Judges
• Coordinators: Not specified
• Consultants: Type unknown

As an INFJ, career satisfaction, in part, means doing work that:

• Lets me consider and create new ideas and/or approaches to a variety of problems, mostly those that help others to grow and develop
• Lets me produce a product or service that I believe in and am proud of
• Recognizes my authorship and ownership and my unique contributions
• Lets me express myself and see the results of my vision
• Lets me implement my ideas for the good of others
• Can be done independently but with the opportunity to share frequently with others in an environmental that is friendly and free of interpersonal conflict
• Lets me organize my own time and work environment
• Is in harmony with my personal values and beliefs and lets me maintained a high degree of personal and professional integrity.

Another handout describes INFJs as authors:

Authors focus on what’s possible. They have a strong drive to contribute to the welfare and enjoy helping their peers. Authors have a great depth of personality; they are complicated and can’t understand and deal with complex issues and people. They are "perfectionists" and sometimes put more effort into a task then is needed. Generally not leaders, Authors influence behind the scenes. They are hard to get to know for they can be reserved and will share personal thoughts only with those they truth. They are hurt easily by others and can be crushed by too much criticism. Authors like to please others and usually contribute their best efforts. They enjoy agreeing with others and find conflict disagreeable and destructive.

Interestingly, INFJs make up 1% of the population. And, according to one website about the Myers-Briggs Test Indicator (MBTI), famous INFJ personalities include: Geoffrey Chaucer, Billy Crystal, Martin Luther King, Jr., Michael Landon, Florence Nightingale, Mother Teresa and Oprah Winfrey.

Considering my personality type, is there any wonder why blogging is such a perfect match for me, careerwise. I sure wish I had known the likes of Andy Wibbels, Liz Strauss, Lorelle VanFossen, Chris Brogan, Des Walsh, Chris Garrett, Darren Rowse and many others to explain what is blogging and the potential as a career choice to my employment counsellors. For those folks, if it isn’t listed in the National Occupational Classification, then it doesn’t exist as a career option. Sad, really. 

Looking back, I am intrigued that the result of one self-assessment, namely the personal organization self-analysis, was off the mark (Me not goal-oriented? Ha, how else I did get this far?) and that the result from the MBTI assessment was pretty close to bang on. How reliable are these tools? How much weight should really be placed on these and other tools? The employment counsellor-types didn’t seem to appreciate when I asked such questions. Without such tools, they didn’t seem to know how to assist me in finding a job. The only purpose I can see those assessments accomplished was putting me in a language they understood

After an hour or so of purging, my six-inches of paper was less than half an inch; more of which will be shredded once this post is published. See, had I not saved that information, I could not have written this revealing post. I’m not a packrat; I was well prepared for this moment! 

Following several more hours of purging and organizing, the bookcase and adjoining shelves were completely done – with space to spare!

Next Saturday: the desk area. 

While out doing errands yesterday, the brakes on my Orion scooter apparently failed. Coming up our hill only to roll backwards should I stop was not a reassuring feeling. Not wanting his wife out in something with unreliable safety, Darrell decided it was time to take possession of a new scooter that Pam at Scooter City had been holding for me since before our Las Vegas trip.

My new, shiny red scooter was delivered by 11:30am today. Thanks Pam!

Even though I have dreamed of having a red sports car (like who hasn’t!), this morning I was feeling nostalgic about my blue scooter. I soared like an eagle in that one! Can I soar in a red one? It’s as if my scooter colour had become part of my identity.

Discussing it this morning on Twitter, @chilihead offered that I could charge like a bull. With cerebral palsy I oftentimes feel like a bull in a china shop. But a changing bull? I hope not; at least, not too often. Then @MikeG1 offered soaring like a red-tailed hawk. Now that has potential! Do hawks soar like eagles? Hmm, I see I’m in for an identity makeover!

However, when the scooter was delivered and I saw the two rearview mirrors standing there like antennas, my initial thought was a red bumblebee! With two mirrors looking back at me, Carly Simon’s "You’re So Vain" suddenly became an earworm!

Those things made be quickly removed. Or, they may prove useful for mounting the gorilla tripod for my camera.

Sadly, my blue Orion sits in the corner, after years of great and loyal service. She deserves an exciting renewal:

• Someone suggested a "Pimp Your Scooter" contest. The winner would keep the scooter.
• @steven_sanders suggested selling it on ebay.
• My good friend Loree suggested jamming the ‘gas’ and sending it off a bridge/cliff. I hope she didn’t mean in Thelma & Louise style!
• And I’m wondering about some kind of raffle and donating part of the profits to a charity. The winning ticket would receive the scooter.

To be brutally honest, I would like to recover a bit of money from renewing her. Contrary to popular belief, the government doesn’t pay for everything for us. And, although Pam gave me a great deal, I still need to finish paying for the red bumblebee. Please let me know if you have any creative ideas.

I’m looking forward to as many adventures with the red-tailed hawk/red bumblebee as I had with the soaring eagle!

Today Darrell was helping a friend teach a robotics class to kids, giving me most of the day to myself. With nothing urgently demanding my time, I decided to attack my office. I spend most of my time in here, but this space receives the least housecleaning time. Today was its turn!

I began with the bookcase, figuring that was a distinct area, and, hopefully, progress would be noticeable. The new shredder had a good breaking in! In less than two hours, I had to stop to take out the recycling bin and shredder droppings to empty. I was on a roll!

The bottom shelf was harder to go through. Much of the paper stuff was from my work with the Career Mentor Program at my Alma Mater – my one and only J O B. I even found four pay stubs, which looked pretty good at this point.

I loved that job – making the Career Mentor Program inclusive and accessible to students and alumni with disabilities. It was something I believed in and strongly felt was necessary. But, the position had been created by government funding so that the government appeared to be hiring and supporting employment of people with disabilities. The funding was for one year. An extension was not available.

I did  apply for other positions on campus, attempting to stay employed at a location that still felt like home to me – after living in residence for seven years while earning my Bachelors degree. However, the head of the human resources department was not overly amenable to hiring people with disabilities, citing the need to adhere to the typing speed requirement for the other entry level positions available on campus. Remaining employed at my Alma Mater was not an option, not that I’m still bitter, too much.

Today, I kept one copy of each brochure, handout and form that I created – in case I’m ever asked to develop a mentoring program again. A few moments during the purge were tough. I really did enjoy that job. Then I came across the birthday card from the staff that year – I’m such a pack rat! Reading what they had written, particularly the Program’s Coordinator, my closest colleague and friend, "See I told you Glenda. They do love you. Even if you are a dork! Happy B-Day -Topher" made me laugh. With my birthday coming up on Tuesday, it was like receiving an early birthday gift.

I then realized that, to make space for my life today and for the opportunities that come along tomorrow, I needed to let go of yesterday. I shredded old resumes and cover letters. I put my job search and cover letter writing books in a pile. (If any of you work with local job clubs or employment programs, you are welcome to these books. Otherwise, I’ll drop them off at the Whalley Employment Centre next time I am at the mall.) I no longer need these books. I have found my dream job. My next task is to find the income that goes along with it. I know I will.

There is now space on my bookshelf for today’s life: Chris Garrett’s and Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income, Lorelle VanFossen’s Blogging Tips: What Bloggers Won’t Tell You About Blogging, and Michael Losier’s Law of Attraction: The Science of Attracting More of What You Want and Less of What You Don’t. And, there’s some space available for whatever tomorrow may bring.

What do you need to let go from yesterday to create space for tomorrow’s opportunities?