I was reminded of my privilege as an able-bodied person to have the ability to freely walk around when I could not walk last week. This was all because of a severely sprained right foot. I had to get an X-Ray to make sure none of my bones were broken. For the last few days, I’ve been hobbling around, even dragging my leg, trying to go up and down our stairs at home and going from the parking lot to our buildings at work. I started to notice certain things like how far the elevator is from the parking lot, even from the disabled parking spots. It took me a little longer to get from one meeting to another. I had to ask one of my colleagues to bring some water so I can drink some pain medicine.
My disability is temporary. In a couple of days, I should be walking around again with no pain (I hope), but this sprained foot did provide me a reminder to check my able-bodied privileges.
There are many privileges we are afforded in life and sometimes I know I don’t always appreciate them. This painful albeit temporary experience certainly reminded me of that.