My Supports

Personal Supports:
My most important daily support is my faith in G-d.  Without my faith, I wouldn't even be here.  My next most important support is my husband. He still loves me and helps me, believes in me and encourages me.  My dogs, my cats and my bird are also daily supports.  They give me love, joy and entertainment.  My friends are a daily support.  They help me stay focused on what is important and help me decompress.  My synagogue family and Rabbi are also very important supports.  The Jenny Craig consultants that are helping me regain a healthy weight and lifestyle are very important even when I don't always believe in myself.  My hair-stylist is also a support.  Because I have these supports, I am able to have a sense of security, know that I have rocks to hold onto when I need to hold on.  Without these supports, I would be engaging in very self-destructive behaviors.  I would not have much confidence and would wallow in fear and self-pity.  My allergist who helps me control my allergies and asthma is a great support.  Without him, I wouldn't be here.  
Non-living Personal Supports:
Music, nature, books, my health, my computer, my car, and my home are just a few. Music has also helped soothe me and heal. Books have opened up visions and allowed me to live in other places.  Books give much joy. My health allows me to engage in activities such as walking and canoeing as well as enjoy life as it comes.  My car helps me get to work and other places.  My Jewish calendar helps me keep all aspects of my life in place.  I can navigate 2011-2012 and 5772 simultaneously.  My computer allows me to communicate with friends from my childhood, nieces and nephews that live in other states and new friends that I connect to.  My computer also allows me to further my education and new classmates.  It also allows me to decompress by playing games on it.  Without music, I have no clue where I would be.  I am in the choir at my synagogue and being a member of the choir allows me to grow spiritually and be more open to my spirituality. I am asthmatic and know what it is like to be near death.  I have had to be rescued from drowning due to passing out in the water at least 4 times in my life.  I know what it is like to wake up in a hospital and not know why I was there or when I even got there to find out someone tripped over me as I was laying unconscious in the grass.  My medications especially my rescue inhaler are supports. 
Professional Supports:
My teaching assistant is my most important support.  We have helped our students, kept them safe and helped keep each other safe at times.  Without him, I would have been more seriously injured by an out of control student than I was.  Without him being able to run faster than I, same student might have gotten hit by a car when student attempted to run into traffic. My students and their caregivers are very important.  Without them, I wouldn't have a profession.  Without the support of the caregivers (I only have 1 student living with a biological parent), I wouldn't be able to help my students progress in all areas.  My behavior specialist is also a much needed support.  She helps develop behavior plans for my students and does most of the paperwork when we have to use restraints or secured seclusion.  My colleague and her assistant support when there is a crisis or just to decompress.  My administration is very supportive and will sometimes give us chocolate.  They also help us problem solve and give us vision and direction.  My fellow teachers open up their class rooms to me and some of my students.  My professional life without this support would be miserable and dangerous. I also would be much less effective as a teacher.  All the speech and language therapists, the occupational therapists, the physical therapists and case managers, reattachment specialists, vision and interpreters for the deaf as well as hard of hearing resource teacher. 
Non-living professional Supports:
I need a desk.  I have had some years where I didn't have a space to call my own in the classroom and I learned, I need a space of my own.  I also have many resource books, IEP's a computer, a classroom, access to a sensory room, computer lab, science lab, white boards.  Too many things to name but all enrich the learning environment.  My own creativity helps me make learning into a game.  My experiences as a person and a teacher are put into play every day.  I really try not to make the same mistake twice.  
There are too many supports to name in all areas of my life.  I am truly grateful for all whether  mentioned or not.
Scenario:
   If I were paralyzed from the waist down, I would want bathrooms big enough for me to use that would respect my privacy.  Employers who would focus on my usefulness and not on my disability.  Friends that treated me as an equal. I would also want an electric wheelchair, a van that was equipped for a wheelchair, enough handicapped parking spaces that are actually big enough for my van's ramp.  I would want a stove that had the burners lined up side by side so I could reach all of the burners.  I would want access to all things that ambulatory people have.  I would want to be seen and not ignored or condescended to.  I would want a relationship with that someone special for me.  I would want caregivers who gave me freedom to explore my limits and help me exceed those limits if possible.  I would want to see my self as normal and be treated as "normal".  I would want to learn with my peers of all abilities. I would need spaces in stores, homes, restaurants, pharmacies that I could navigate my wheelchair through.  I would want respectful service at these places.  With these supports, I would have mobility, independence, opportunity for growth, employment, self-esteem, access, respect, a sense of belonging.  Without these supports, I would be isolate, alone, dependent, low self-esteem, needing care. Even with the supports, I may still need assistance in certain areas, but I would be as independent as possible.  
This scenario is dedicated to my friend, Donna, who has been an inspiration to me.  I can only hope that I have given her some of the support I mentioned throughout our youth and adulthood. I am sure there is much I overlooked.