Disability Pride Series

Our Beautiful Challenges — Marie

Every person has a story.

The question is: who is holding the pen?

For many years, I allowed fear, doubt, and other people’s opinions to write chapters of my life.

Sometimes I believed the limits others placed on me.

Sometimes I questioned my own dreams.

Sometimes I forgot that my story belonged to me.

Living with cerebral palsy has never been easy.

There have been challenges, disappointments, and obstacles I never asked for.

But there have also been victories I never imagined.

Moving into my own apartment.

Building meaningful relationships.

Finding my voice through writing.

Advocating for others.

Creating Work Out With Cerebral Palsy.

Starting Our Beautiful Challenges.

None of those chapters happened because someone else wrote them for me.

They happened because I picked up the pen.

That is why The Author of Me means so much.

It reminds me that my disability is part of my story—but it is not the author of my story.

Neither is fear.

Neither is ableism.

Neither are the opinions of people who underestimated me.

I am the author.

Every day I have the opportunity to write another page filled with courage, hope, growth, kindness, and purpose.

My story is still being written.

And I can’t wait to see where the next chapter leads.

Because the story is within us.

We are the authors who bring it to life.