Am I Inspirational? Yes? Wrong Answer

The correct answer is no, I am not.

I saw this link on Facebook that was about how calling disabled people inspirational has become such a cliche that it's almost insulting now and I agree 100 percent. To me an inspirational person is someone like Louie Zamperini who overcame unimaginable cruelty as a POW or someone like Princess Diana who fought like hell for the causes she believed until she died.

And what have I done exactly? Yes, I survived a stroke when I was a mass of developing cells and organs but in what world is that inspirational? People have told me I'm an inspiration to them and by now if I don't know the person who tells me this it annoys me. So I've inspired you to survive a stroke? Lovely. I wish you luck with that.

One of my friends saw I had shared the article and she commented on it. She said, "But you are inspiring. You deal with issues so beautifully. Things I do take more work for you but you still love life and are positive. People nowadays are so lazy and 'I can't' and you're so 'Um yes I can'."

Now, coming from a very good friend of mine most of that is extremely sweet but there is one problem in the third line. Things she can do I can do too BUT actually we do them putting in the same amount of work. Just because my brain is rewired does not mean I have to work harder to do day-to-day things; all it means is that I found ways to do them differently to make sure my body doesn't overwork itself by trying to do things like she does.

That's not inspirational at all. That's what I call the "Adapt or Die" instinct that all humans have inside them. Our will to survive in hostile environments is astounding. If I hadn't adapted to my own body it's vert unlikely I'd be where I am.

If I were an inspiration, I'd say I could do anything. That's wrong.

There are many careers I know i cannot do. I will never be a surgeon because of the way my left hand is not on par with my right, I will never be a rocket scientist because I know my math skills are definitely not good enough, and those are just two really good examples. Now, I'm not a pessimist at all but my school of thought is based on logic. It does not seem logical to me that a sane person would want to have a person with very good use of one hand and little use of the other operate on them. I know I wouldn't.

On the flip side of that, there is a lot I could choose to do as a career. My absolute dream is to be an author and historian but considering neither of those make any money as a sole career I have considered possibly going into medical law. Medicine has always fascinated me as a whole and by working on the legal aspect of it I am in no danger of making a mistake that could result in the death of an individual. So yes, it's very plausible I could do that.

So bottom line: don't you dare tell me I'm an inspiration to you because of what I've gone through/survived as it comes off wrong in most cases. If you want to be inspired by me, I suggest finding inspiration in how my existence can contribute to society through the work I do rather than my backstory.