Before the session with Christina Lau, I was actually looking forward to listening to her story. I wondered how she coped with her accident and how she accepted her disability. I also kept in mind that everything she was sharing was personal and we had to be careful about our questions because she might be sensitive towards some of them. After the talk I realised that Christina was a bit more open about everything than I expected her to be, but that does not mean all people who have disabilities are. I enjoyed her story and I thought it was very inspiring even to someone who does not have disabilities. A lot of things made her very inspiring, such as, her positive outlook, her goals and aspirations, and the way she managed to get through such a hard situation.
This session gave me more insight on the lives of disabled people. I never really researched or talked to people with disabilities so I never knew how they felt or how they were treated. Christina shared a lot of her feelings that she went through after the accident, how she felt like giving up and that she thought she was “a burden to her family”. She shared the fact that she got a lot of nasty looks when people saw her and accepted her as if she was “from outer space”. Although everyone including me has gotten bad remarks from people, I can’t imagine how it must feel getting them when you are disabled. As if you were not a human.
During the session, Christina said that “if you give up you will never know how far you could go”. This quote stayed and echoed in my head. If someone who has gone through, and still going through, so much and can keep going and achieve greater accomplishments then anyone can if they just try. This gave me motivation and something to think about.
Some questions I would have wanted to ask Christina would be:
After the accident, did you realise which people actually cared and stuck by your side?
How did your experience help you become a better person regarding kindness or open-mindedness?
