A Daunting Day on Campus (Day 2 with "The Chair")

Ironically, I found myself more nervous today going somewhere I am familiar with versus the shopping areas yesterday. I think that the anxiety came from the fact that in the year I have been at this school I have not seen one disabled student in this building. The building I often refer to is where the kinesiology department, athletic offices, basketball gym, student fitness center, and campus recreation are housed. I found this observation very disheartening because I wondered how many students with any disabilities do not come here because there is not enough equipment or options for them to utilize. Granted this school is known as a "commuter school", but that is still no excuse for not accommodating all students.

It seems like every time I get in the chair, within several minutes, I am encountering some sort of issue. Not only was it around -3 degrees windchill this morning, but I also had to figure out how I would get my laptop bag and a cup of coffee on my lap and into the building without scalding myself. I seemed to find every crack and hole from the parking lot to the building, but was lucky enough to only almost tip over twice (once forward and once backward). I navigated my way to the graduate assistant's office upstairs without any major problems and faced the first of many (felt like hundreds) questions about why I was in a wheelchair. I did not mind answering any of them and all of the students seemed genuinely intrigued about this class I am in and why we had to do this. I definitely took the time to answer any questions and share my experience thus far. I found it odd that out of the nearly 70 students in the three classes I am in charge of, not one student said they had been in a wheelchair for any reason before.

I did get a chance to shoot around after I had my class play basketball this morning. I feel like I am an above average basketball player, but today felt like I was learning the sport all over again. All my life I have been taught to "use your legs Andrew". Never did I realize how much you do use your legs until I tried shooting a simple layup and missed the first three times. My three pointer attempts looked like those 3/4 prayer shots you see at the end of a game (which I obviously missed). I can't wait to go to a wheelchair basketball game sometime to see how the game is really played. Then in the afternoon I attempted to lift some weights and found I was very limited in what I could do there. Shoulder presses and dumb bell curls were the extent of what I had available to me. Maybe I was spoiled by the fact that I know there are some great cable machines that are designed for people in wheelchairs and was jealous that I did not have them to use. I did try though and that is half the battle.

By the time I returned home I think I was just as much mentally exhausted as physically (my lower back was ABSOLUTELY killing me). My hands were starting to bother me towards the end of the day as I found myself constantly moving around the rooms I was in. This did not really surprise me all that much since I normally pace around everywhere anyway. So I will be looking for some sort of gloves to wear next time I will be on campus all day (which will not be until next Monday). Even though this was just the second full day in the chair I secretly wanted it to be over already. Luckily I do not have as busy of a schedule the rest of the week, but I will try to find scenarios to get out and about as much as possible.