Meet Kevin!

Hello beautiful people!

Upon the pandemic, I have been thinking of new ways of improving my blog and I thought what better way than to give members of the disabled community a chance to share their stories, their way! So I have added a new section on my website labeled "Our Stories". I hope that this brings even more light to the disabled community and show society who we really are, and that's human beings just like you!

Please help me welcome Kevin!

"Be kind. Be brave."

Kevin

He/Him/His

20 years old

Salisbury, Maryland

"Hi! my name is Kevin Garcia. I'm from Salisbury, Maryland U.S.A. I am 20 years old. I graduated from high school in 2018. I have cerebral palsy and was diagnosed when I was 4 months old. [My family has their own belief on how I got CP, but you can contact me personally as that is very personal topic]. My mom took me to many medical institutions, I remember that I went to Baltimore but they did unjust things to me, so we settled on Wilmington, Delaware and they were the ones to diagnosed me. As you can imagine my life changed from that point on and I have had a lot of struggles. There are some people who still believe that I hurt myself while I was with a babysitter and that's how I got CP. Since my diagnostic, as I grew, things got harder for my parents to help me out. Finally, until last year we wanted to look for help, a new home, and especially a personal assistant but we never got it. I never received the help because dors (division of rehabilitation services) was supposed to help me after graduation. We had a meeting and the person told me that they would help me with find a job but they didn't. I had a career assessment back in January and after the meeting with three people, I never heard back. I was once told that I should graduate 7 years instead of 4 because I needed more time to adjust due to their opinion that I will need more help later in life. Although, some teachers that it was a great for me to stay for 7 years, I didn't because I didn't want to feel like I was [and I wanted to graduated along with my peers. Technically, I did graduate in 4 years and I decided to do this because at the time, I had so many problems with my peers. It was so bad that I decided to prove everyone wrong, that not all [individuals with disabilities] are slow and that I can do anything I put my mind to.

I was mistreated by my peers in high school emotionally bullied. I was so depressed because I thought I was a nobody and I thought nobody liked me because I was very different and I'm in a wheelchair. I remember that I gt ignored by my peers through text sometimes on purpose. Then, I found out that my friends had been posting pictures about this guy in a wheelchair, who was in a special ed classroom, and my friends who never treated me like a regular human being, thought it was cool to compare me to him even though, I wasn't in a special needs classroom but they thought that just because we looked similar that I was friends with the guy but it was not the case so that's why I was so upset about it. Three summer ago, that same guy in the special ed class, invited my friends to his birthday party and I got jealous for a whole year. Then because of that, I bullied so many disabled people due to this guy getting in my way of my relationships. I said so many terrible things to them because I was so angry on how I got treated by my peers. Because of all of this, I got in trouble many times. Even my grades went to straight A's to C's and D's that's why, I had no choice but to end up in a community college and I feel bad about it because I was the smartest guy in 9th grade and I was supposed to be in a big university but it never happened at all. Ever since, I have struggled a lot with friends. It's unfortunate that society was taught that, for some reason, [individuals with disabilities] should be treated very differently than their peers but it's not true because we are all human. Just because my voice is not clear, should not be a determining factor for people to talk to me, it's very frustrating. Although, I do have a communication device on my phone that speaks, I don't want to be confine to it. It was a living nightmare for me in high school socially and academically. The only positive thing that I like about having cerebral palsy is talking online to people, my parents still taking good care of me no matter what, and having benefits. In August, I met my best friend, Laura, and I'm very happy that I've met her.

I had a difficult time finding the right "one" for me. I had a total of 8 ex girlfriends, but none of them worked out. Three years ago, I found out that interabled relationships did exist and I thought to myself that I wanted to be a part of one. I am online trying to find new people to talk to. I have met some people on dating apps such as meet. I almost dated girls along the way, but it never worked out because some were playing too much and a lot of girls don't like me because I'm in a wheelchair and some block me for no reason. I just want to know what it feels like to be in a real relationship, do couple things, and get married. I don't want to be alone for the rest of my life, especially if I move out in the future. I feel like that would be extremely sad. I feel like I won't have anybody to keep me company and just be there for me. I told everyone that interable couples do exist and that it doesn't have to be two disabled people falling in love. It happened with someone that I know who is in a wheelchair and he also has a girlfriend in a wheelchair, and that's what they want to see and that's what they want for me but that's not what I want.

I'm interested in so much such as video games, sports, boardwalks, and traveling etc,. I also like to describe myself as a world activist, advocating for all issues including climate change, social justice, health issues, immigration issues, women rights, voting rights, and human rights.  I speak for all communities."

For more of Kevin, feel free to follow him on:

Instagram: theworldwide_superhero

Snapchat: kevingarcia2070

Comment section is open for questions/conversations.

Thank you for reading!

XO Ashley

*I have only grammatically modified each person's stories*

*[] was only used to replace a word(s) that I believed was not appropriate for my blog*