Exposure and Confidence
I don’t want to scare anyone but there are only two weekends left in the technical ‘Summer’. Oh, what a summer it has been.
At Gillette, we started the day by parking in a reserved area for people with handicap license plates. The lot was perfect and heavily enforced by staff and police. We tailgated out of the van and rolled away for the concert after a good pre-game. We moved about one hundred yards to an elevator that brought us up to security. They had a separate security line which we breezed right through. We went right to our seating area under a nice cover which later protected us from pouring rain. The wheelchair area had staff on both sides who guarded the section with their lives. No one wandered in and crowded the area, despite drunken protests. Eventually, after a few Bud Lights, it was time for me to find a bathroom. When I rolled away, a rubber threshold got tangled in my wheelchair and within seconds, two concert passerby’s picked up my 450 lb chair (drunken strength) and Kass pulled out the rubber. Everyone was just so genuine and helpful. The bathroom was kept separate in a first aid room, again guarded by Police and EMT. It made the task of waiting for drunk concert patrons to leave the wheelchair/family bathroom irrelevant. The whole concert was incredible and all of the accessibility commodities made it that much better.
I highly recommend spending some time at your local fields and ball parks. Living and experiencing the accessibility and the customer services here has helped me so much. It makes me so confident to know that I can go to these venues for so many more worry free experiences. Ya know, just in case the Patriots want to spoil us with another Super Bowl? Or the Red Sox want to fight their way into the playoffs? Only the future will tell... but regardless, here’s to a worry-free night out and a huge thank you to all of the staff that make the experiences what they are! It may not seem like it, but you’re doing God’s work.
Whether I like it or not, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat all throw “memories” at me every morning. It is very rewarding to see a visual contrast between last summer and this summer each morning so I actually don’t mind these new features of social media. I get to look back and see how uncertain and insecure that I was when I was out. Maybe I put on a brave face and played it cool because that’s what I’ve been conditioned to do...
Rules of the Infantry:
1) Always look cool.
2) Never get lost.
3) If lost, refer to rule #1.
It is so great to see my therapist’s words actually playing out. That I would get the most therapy by simply living life away from the hospital.
This last weekend I went to a huge country concert at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, MA and spent the next day rolling through Fenway Park for picnic in the park. I was blessed with the opportunity to attend this event last year through Kass’s Uncle and Cousin who work at the park. This is where my contrast starts.
Last year was incredible but I definitely felt insecure rolling around. Having to go out of my way to roll down a ramp instead of using the staircase or using an elevator to get to the hard to reach areas of the park. I was still figuring out what clothes would fit me as my body changed. I just felt out of place. Oh how wrong I was. I was playing the victim.
This year all I could think about was how accessible the park actually is. I’m sure that at one point (Fenway is the second oldest baseball park in the US) the park didn’t have all of these commodities for someone in a wheelchair. Now, I’m able to get everywhere in the park without even using my legs. On top of that, the employees go very far out of their way to help. From Kass’s Uncle Scotty reserving parking places for my wheelchair van to the employees guarding the family restroom and elevators for people that actually need them. To the reserved seats for wheelchair users and their guests with a prime view of the field and the employees blocking others from crowding the area. I am amazed by the accessibility of the fields and the staff that help make the experience incredible.
At Gillette, we started the day by parking in a reserved area for people with handicap license plates. The lot was perfect and heavily enforced by staff and police. We tailgated out of the van and rolled away for the concert after a good pre-game. We moved about one hundred yards to an elevator that brought us up to security. They had a separate security line which we breezed right through. We went right to our seating area under a nice cover which later protected us from pouring rain. The wheelchair area had staff on both sides who guarded the section with their lives. No one wandered in and crowded the area, despite drunken protests. Eventually, after a few Bud Lights, it was time for me to find a bathroom. When I rolled away, a rubber threshold got tangled in my wheelchair and within seconds, two concert passerby’s picked up my 450 lb chair (drunken strength) and Kass pulled out the rubber. Everyone was just so genuine and helpful. The bathroom was kept separate in a first aid room, again guarded by Police and EMT. It made the task of waiting for drunk concert patrons to leave the wheelchair/family bathroom irrelevant. The whole concert was incredible and all of the accessibility commodities made it that much better.
I highly recommend spending some time at your local fields and ball parks. Living and experiencing the accessibility and the customer services here has helped me so much. It makes me so confident to know that I can go to these venues for so many more worry free experiences. Ya know, just in case the Patriots want to spoil us with another Super Bowl? Or the Red Sox want to fight their way into the playoffs? Only the future will tell... but regardless, here’s to a worry-free night out and a huge thank you to all of the staff that make the experiences what they are! It may not seem like it, but you’re doing God’s work.
God Bless!
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