I’m sure each and every one of you have been wondering where I’ve been, and have been spending your waking hours pining for another thrilling instalment of this blog. My apologies for my absence, but believe it or not, I’ve been quite busy writing! I completed a ‘Begin Your Novel’ course during the first week of March and realised, to my great disappointment, that what I’d written so far is an unsalvageable mess. So, I did what any self-respecting writer would do and I started again, which has taken up a great deal of my headspace and time. Second time lucky, right…?

I also realised that I’m a cranky old bitch who, while I don’t mind blogging about disability issues, I hate talking about the day-to-day realities of having CP. To be honest, I bore myself so I wouldn’t inflict that on other people. I live as average a life as I can, juggling writing with raising my daughter, and I am lucky insofar as if I can keep some sort of realistic balance and not push myself past the point of redemption, I can get away with keeping a number of balls in the air. I’ve been conditioned to believe, through interaction with other die-hard activists, that it’s society that truly impairs us and that we need to keep challenging these barriers; they, and not our impairments, are the real source of inequality facing disabled people in Ireland.

Lately, however, I’ve been having doubts about my own beliefs, and these doubts have stopped me from blogging as I normally do. Who am I to question the system? Who am I to maintain that it’s society that disables us? Am I too angry? Have I become the proverbial ‘crip with a chip’ that everyone hates? And am I willing to quieten things down a little, stop being so extreme in my loyalty to the pursuit of pure equality and the philosophy of Independent Living (if there even is one any more)?

The answer to the last question is no. And I hate myself for it, I really do.

On Monday night, Tom Milne, Catherine Molloy and I partook in a radio show called the Open Door hosted by the wonderful Ann Marie Kelly on Midlands 103 where the theme of the show was my poem, ‘Fight, Fight, Fight.’ I have to admit that I acted like a pig-headed jackass towards Ann-Marie, which she didn’t deserve because she was very welcoming to me. But I wanted to highlight so many issues facing people with disabilities when she wanted to talk about my impairment and my day-to-day life. I felt frustrated. I didn’t want to be seen as inspirational (lads, I haven’t had a job with a steady wage for three years). I felt ashamed of myself. I mentioned my novel and what I want to achieve writing it but I don’t know if I’ll ever finish it. (It is the main item on my wish-list this year).

And up until an hour ago, I was struggling to find words to explain why I felt so frustrated in myself. Having stared at a blank screen for a whole half hour, I eventually said ‘sod this’ and decided to whittle away the evening hours watching TED talks on YouTube. To make myself feel better, I decided to watch Francesca Martinez’s TED talk in the name of ‘disability research’. Francesca Martinez is a writer, activist and comedienne with Cerebral Palsy who wrote a fantastic autobiography What the **** is Normal? In her talk, Francesca talks about how she spent her teenage years trying to fit in (just like I did) and how her life changed at nineteen when her friend Dylan gave her life changing information: ‘You are you. Yes, you walk differently but no two people walk the same way. You are Francesca, and you can define yourself any way you want.’

Francesca had a light-bulb moment, just as I did watching the TED talk. We spend so much time, she says, trying to conform in a world obsessed with consumerism, being told that if we buy lots of stuff, wear certain things and look and act a certain way, then we will be accepted by our peers. But, as she points out, the illusion this creates isn’t real. And that’s when I realised exactly why I felt torn apart inside.

I want to be real. I want to be seen as a real person. Yes, I am capable of doing some great things but I also reserve the right to be seen as a cantankerous git, someone who doesn’t always get it right. I want to be seen as someone who challenges the status quo, who is willing to take risks. I can’t change the fact that I  have Cerebral Palsy, but if I persevere, I might be able to change people’s misconceptions and eliminate barriers to full inclusion to society.

And I know that those who really matter will completely understand where I’m coming from. In the immortal words of Homer Simpson, ‘I never apologise. I’m sorry, but that’s just the way I am.’