Christina Lau: Fullness of Life

For me, the disabled used to be those that I pity, simply because I was told to. Curiosity often burns in me as I wonder how and when did it happen to them? From birth? Or perhaps a traumatizing accident? I wondered what life is like through the eyes of those who are disabled. However, I learned by seeing and hearing, that the burning questions I had may be insensitive to some who are disabled. I did not want to take the risk of asking, just in case he or she might find the question uncomfortable.

Writer’s Fortnight 2018 had helped me answer those probing questions I had. Christina Lau is mouth artist and a para table tennis player who is paralyzed from her chest down when she was involved in a car accident during a rainy night in 2005. Before she came in for the session, I was told that she is an open person; answering all different types of question. “There must be at least a question that she will refuse to answer during the session,” is what I thought before the session. I was proved wrong as she answered every single question thrown at her with a positive attitude. In response to a question regarding the social stigma surrounding her and her disability, she said: “Don’t make disabled people feel different from you.” All this time I have been pitying the disabled, feeling sorry for them, thinking that they have lost the ability to gain the “fullness of life.” However, Christina proved me wrong as I learn that you do not need full body parts to have a full life. Just like what Christina had said “life can be easy, life can be difficult. It depends on how you look at it.” Christina Lau is no longer the disabled who passing by that I pity. To me, she is someone whom I can call an inspiration.

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One response

  1. That’s great…though I wonder if Christina can make herself feel/believe this all of the time, or if she still struggles with dark moments, and how she pulls herself through such moments…

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