My name is Sarah Lamonica and I am a woman living with cerebral palsy. Cerebral Palsy is a diagnosis that keeps giving every day. The summer I turned 13, my team of doctors decided I needed to repeat an extensive surgery on my legs to keep me walking. It involved cutting my femurs, straightening them and securing them with titanium rods and screws. Muscles were lengthened, and tendons moved. It would be awful. I would miss an entire year of school, the ski season, dances, girl scouts and all the fun of being a teen. The idea of going through this painful and difficult process again was depressing. It would have been easy to just give up. Since I had been through it once already, I knew how horrible this would be. My friends would be going back to school without me and I feared I would be left behind. Academics are hard for me. My CP affects reading, writing, typing, and even walking to classes and carrying a backpack. Most of the things other students take for granted. I loved school for the socialization. There was always a new activity to try and friends to gossip with. I didn’t want to even think about missing a whole year. If I could not keep up, I would be a year behind my friends. I would miss skiing lessons at Winter Park. This is a program for special needs kids with lots of help from the staff at the hospital. Skiing is fantastic even though it took a lot of effort and help to get me down the mountain safely. The girl scouts would miss me this year because I held the record for most cookies sold for several years. Camping was never my favorite, but I worked hard to keep up with my friends in scouts anyway. This was a hard decision. I cried, a lot. I could just take the easy way out and let my handicap define me or I could fight. I would have to learn to walk again. I would miss a lot with school and my friends. It would hurt both physically and mentally. Or I could not do the surgery and be in a wheelchair. With my big girl panties on, I decided to just get it done. This was not going to stop me from doing what I wanted. I wanted to walk. I wanted to go to high school with my friends, and just be normal. After the surgery, I talked the doctors into releasing me home a day early. That same day I weaned myself off the narcotics. Motrin was enough. Through online school, I finished my classwork several months early so I could focus on other things like walking. Physical therapy has been a part of my life for a long time. It is torture. The following year, I rejoined my classmates. I was able to try out for the cheer team. Joining my friends in the recycling club helped me regain my strength and endurance and keep the school pretty. I was slower but I was doing it. Since high school, I have started my own business. I care for my goats and chickens. I have learned to drive a 4-wheeler and am looking forward to college this fall. In college, I will pursue a teaching degree and hope to one day run a special education kindergarten classroom. From this experience, I learned that I can do hard things. I am a woman living with Cerebral Palsy but it will not define me and it will not stop me.

I would like to run a special education kindergarten, because I am disabled I think I would have a great point of view.