Latest / The Chris and Mike Show / #125 - Michelle Steiner - Navigating Life with Disabilities

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#125 - Michelle Steiner - Navigating Life with Disabilities · The Chris and Mike Show

• 0:01
  Ha ha ha ha. What's up the boys and roses
• 0:09
  person like with our with our guest Michelle, ladies and
• 0:15
  gentlemen. So again, thank you for joining
• 0:36
  us. We are Chris and Mike and she's
• 0:38
  Michelle. This is Chris and Mike.
• 0:39
  So we are actually broadcasting live on the YouTube as well as
• 0:42
  Twitch right now. So I was talking to some of my
• 0:44
  son Jake earlier, Mike and I told him, dude, we'll be on
• 0:46
  YouTube at 3:00, join in. He's like, OK pops, I will even
• 0:49
  right on. Even though he's doing Marine
• 0:51
  things, you know, he can still he's in the office today.
• 0:54
  So that's kind of fun. So we have, I'm in Arizona,
• 0:58
  Mike's in Illinois. Where are you at, Michelle?
• 1:00
  Pennsylvania. I see.
• 1:01
  I was going to say Pennsylvania pre show 'cause I kind of, I
• 1:03
  kind of picked up the accent. Yeah, right.
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  And my wife's from Punxsutawney. I'm sure you know where that is.
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  Yes, I I do. We're just an hour from
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  Pittsburgh. So yeah, yeah, definitely.
• 1:14
  You could always pick up the the Pennsylvania.
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  Accent, right? Good old Punxsutawney Phil.
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  So are you a Steelers fan? Let's get the Let's get the
• 1:21
  serious stuff out of the way. Since you're from Pennsylvania,
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  you're a Steelers fan. I'm not much into sports, but I
• 1:26
  of course, the Steelers, definitely.
• 1:28
  Yeah. I've always said a big one.
• 1:30
  Yep. Cool.
• 1:33
  So you're super excited about Aaron Rodgers being your
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  quarterback. Now say no.
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  That answer would be no. Much into sports.
• 1:40
  Why? That's why you just say no.
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  You just say no. I will ask my husband.
• 1:44
  Yeah, your husband will agree. It's I.
• 1:46
  Think he's probably going to say no as well.
• 1:48
  You. Know yeah, there's a meme out
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  there where where he's on a it's it's it's an old guy I don't
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  know who he is but he's like, you know just he was introducing
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  their new quarterback and he's like an old dude on a Walker
• 2:00
  and. You know.
• 2:03
  Call it a career, man. Call it a career.
• 2:05
  So, OK, so we can't talk sports because she doesn't like sports.
• 2:08
  Wow. OK, that's fine.
• 2:10
  You know, everybody's a sports. Not like we are, but we're not
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  really sports. Not we just live in the world.
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  So watch it for. We do watch it for entertaining
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  and fun, so let's chat a little bit about you, Michelle.
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  Where are you originally from? Pennsylvania.
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  Yes. OK.
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  And what is it that why are you here today?
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  Why did you want to come on our show?
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  Let's chat a little bit about that.
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  Give us your give us your elevator speech.
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  We're on an elevator with Mike and I.
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  We're going up 30th floor. You got like a minute to tell us
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  who you are and why you want to come on this rapidly growing,
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  fast-paced, energized podcast that's taking over the world. 21
• 2:43
  countries, mind you. That's good.
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  That's good. Well, my name is Michelle
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  Steiner. I live in Pennsylvania with my
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  husband Ron or two cats, Jack and Sparrow. 2 cats.
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  Is it from from Pirates of the Caribbean?
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  Yes, when we adopted them that the people that we got them from
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  were huge Disney fans and we thought the names were just so
• 3:03
  cute. We didn't want to change them.
• 3:08
  Yeah. And that's right.
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  And I also, I work in a school as a para educator or a
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  teacher's aide with students who have disabilities.
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  And I also, I'm a writer, I'm a speaker and I'm a photographer.
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  And I have a blog called Michelle's Mission where I write
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  about my life with having a learning disability.
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  And my goal or the mission statement of where I'm at is to
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  encourage, empower and educate people with and without
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  disabilities. That's.
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  Awesome. I'm Googling it right now.
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  Michelle's mission, Where are you?
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  Oh, that was weird. I went to AI mode.
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  Wow, holy smoke. So Google has this AI mode and
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  there's and OK, there's, there's lots of Michelle missions.
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  So how do I find you? I am ww.michellesmission.com.
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  Yeah, that's what I did. Weird hold.
• 4:01
  On I can. Always get out of it.
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  There you go, Michelle. Oh, Michelle's mission.
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  There's my dad. I did, I did.
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  I didn't pluralize that. Got to pluralize it Got to.
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  Pluralize it plural, Plural I. Can always put the link in the
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  chat too, no big deal. You're all good, Michelle.
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  Commission there. It is a blog to encourage,
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  empower and educate people with and without the abilities.
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  I like that. Outstanding.
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  And you have a podcast. I don't have a podcast but I put
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  where the links of where I podcast up and.
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  On I've been on a lot of podcasts.
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  Wow, this is going. To be the most fun one you've
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  ever been on, ever, in your entire life.
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  Of. Course, we guarantee it.
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  You're just going to be. Like wow, where these guys been
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  all my life. Find your waves and sword.
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  I like that. I like that very cool.
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  And and so the nice thing about this, people watching and and
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  tuning in on YouTube and Twitch pluralize it.
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  Michelle's mission.com on the top, it has her, her Instagram,
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  her Facebook, all the resources, how to contact her.
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  There's a press, there's there's all the news articles and stuff.
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  There's a store. The podcast has been on our
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  social feeds and her blog itself.
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  I'm a huge Blogger too, so I dig the whole blog concept, so I
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  love that. And do you blog actually on the
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  site or is it somewhere else? You blog in the RSS feed it.
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  I blog on the site. OK, cool.
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  Right on. Outstanding.
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  Wow, that's a lot of blogs man. Yeah.
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  How long have you been doing that?
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  I've done that for about 5 years now.
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  I started whenever the pandemic began.
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  I had a grant from Disability Pride in Philadelphia, so that
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  that encouraged me to start that, but I wrote about having a
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  disability a few years prior to that.
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  In fact, writing and reading has always been really big in my
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  life, especially when I was in school and I was being bullied
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  as a kid. I really writing and reading
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  became my world. And I was really lucky as a
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  teenager that I found an adult writing group whenever I was 16
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  or 17. And I mean, these people really
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  encouraged me to write about having a a disability.
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  And 20 some years later, we still meet once a month to talk
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  about her writing and we're in each other.
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  It's so cool. Yeah, at the time, though, I
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  decided, oh, I'm just going to put that on the shelf.
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  That's way too personal. And I, I've read some really bad
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  poetry and some other things I don't, would not want to read
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  today. But when I finally.
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  Everybody's got to start somewhere.
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  Yeah, exactly. For the people that are
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  listening at home, obviously you know you're talking about having
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  your own disabilities. Reading and writing are not one
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  of them. So what are your disabilities?
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  I have dyscalculia which is a math disability I have.
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  What is that for the Yeah, explain I don't even know what.
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  I don't know either so. Treat us.
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  Like we're five year olds and give us the kindergarten.
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  Right when you have this calculia it it it means that I
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  have trouble with math, but it goes beyond just being bad at
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  math. This is something where I can
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  understand very basic concepts, but it it capped off at a very
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  early stage of that. And I also it it impacts me
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  outside the classroom. I will confuse my right for my
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  left. I cannot read the face of an
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  analog clock, despite having many interventions with that.
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  Still to this day. Yep, still to this day.
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  That's crazy. Yeah, I mean, if you give me a
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  running start, I can usually keep track of it.
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  But if I was just do a blind read I I can't tell you what
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  time it is and. So now with the math, is it just
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  something you cannot do? Can you not put the numbers
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  together? Does it get scrambled in your
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  brain or, you know, kind of describe to myself and the
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  people that are listening, what are you experiencing when you're
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  trying to do math? Where the rest of us, I'll say
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  we suck at it, but we can figure it out, right?
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  Right. Well, for me, I have not
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  memorized all my addition, all my subtraction, multiplication,
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  all those tables have not have that memorized.
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  But even if you would give me a calculator, it's still really a
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  struggle for me past a very basic level.
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  It's just really trying to figure out how numbers will
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  work. So you might give me a formula
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  and sometimes that working memory doesn't, just doesn't do
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  that. We, we don't know for sure why
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  certain people are just really bad at it or really and why
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  people have that. But I'm not, I've always
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  struggled with that. I've get the worksheets and I
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  could, I just couldn't do a lot of that.
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  And I really had a lot of difficulty.
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  And I mean, it can everything is what we might even say goes to
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  one source. I mean I'm also not able to
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  drive but that also is the visual perception and it also
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  goes to the index. Everything just seems like it
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  comes to a brain based SO. Do you not have the proper depth
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  perception? Is that why you can't drive?
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  Exactly. OK, wow.
• 9:01
  So the first time I ever got high, I felt like I was, this is
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  like when I was in high school. OK, so I'm not, I'm not the
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  Stoner or anything, but we talked about this on our Ozzy
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  Osbourne tribute show, 'cause you realize the first time I
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  ever, it was not a bad thing, but some people, you know, so I
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  don't think Jake ever realizes that I, I got stoned.
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  So now if my son's watching, he's really what dad?
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  So, right, Why Mike? So that was an accident.
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  So, but, but I remember the first time ever doing that
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  because it was with my brother and a couple of his friends and
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  there's a whole peer pressure thing, you know, you got to do
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  this man, because, you know, whatever Ozzy was playing and
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  that was my first introduction to Ozzy.
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  So by the time he kicked in and we went home to get money, go to
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  711 munchies, I, I remembered I felt like I was walking on the
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  moon, right. So, and so that in my head
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  obviously was a depth perception thing because I thought, I
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  thought the ground was, was a lot.
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  I don't know if it was lower or higher.
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  So. You felt like your feet were way
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  off. The ground so was, so was.
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  So the reason I'm, I bring this up because I want to, I want to
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  compare is that, is that what depth perception's like for you,
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  the visual perception like you just you don't, you don't know
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  how to. I don't want to sound stupid,
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  but you don't like you put your foot down, but in your brain
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  like oh shit, is that actually the ground?
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  So is an easy way for you. It does.
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  OK. An easier way for you to make
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  sense of it, Chris, as a driver is you can tell how quickly you
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  have to slow down based on how far the truck or the car in
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  front of you is correct. OK, OK.
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  She would never be able to do. That she would.
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  Rear end people all the. Time I would because I mean I
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  she. Can't tell how far that is in
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  front. Of her that's what your.
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  Depth perception does. Right where I am, like, in
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  space. I mean, gym class was a
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  nightmare for me. I'll clinch every time a ball
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  comes in my direction. I bet.
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  Yeah. So that was really hard for me
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  to be able to do a lot of that. And my parents kind of knew
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  whenever I turned 16 that this was going to be an issue.
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  We didn't know how big of an issue it was going to be though.
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  So we waited a year and then they have, we've lived out in
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  the country and they had me do little things before we even
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  considered studying from a test or anything.
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  They, we have this field and they said, well, why don't you
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  go mow the field? And instead of making these
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  perfect straight lines, I ended up making circles.
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  So I always say that I know. I now know where crop circles
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  come from. It's Michelle did it.
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  Michelle did it. You've heard it here 1st and the
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  Chris and Mike showed the crop circle epidemic and solved
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  mystery has been solved. It's Michelle.
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  Michelle did it Roof. That's great.
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  I love. It and then my parents had me
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  drive up. We had a really long drive late.
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  I was in the car with my mom and she said, well, do you want to
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  drive? And I said, OK.
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  So we drove up the driveway and thank God my mom was in the car
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  with me or else I would have crashed into the family garage.
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  And this is what my mom said. This is beyond just somebody.
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  It's not going to be the, the next greatest athlete or
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  something to that extreme. We knew that this was going to
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  have to get looked at. So I was really lucky.
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  I got connected with an agency called Office for Vocational
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  rehabilitation. And they paid all for all of my
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  years of college, but they also paid for me to get a driver's
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  license evaluation. They, they don't do that now.
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  They won't pay for it, but they did in the past.
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  Thankfully they did. And it was at a rehabilitation
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  hospital. And I can remember we went
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  through a whole battery of tests.
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  I mean, I went, I passed I knew what to do if the car broke
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  down. I, I knew, you know what, what
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  perhaps I was the responsibility of being a driver, the vision
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  test, perfect vision to be able to pass that.
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  And then we got to the, the last part, which was visual
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  perception. And she said, based upon your
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  score, I don't think that it's wise for you to get your license
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  at this time. And it just felt like 100 lbs
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  was lifted off of me at that. Point so So here's a question.
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  So you're 16. When did when did this condition
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  start presenting itself? Were you younger and just didn't
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  realize it? It did when I was in
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  kindergarten. They knew when I, when I was
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  very young that I had that I went to the eye doctor and they
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  gave different things for me to do to try to with my visual
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  perception, with my, with my eye hand coordination.
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  I remember my dad, he had a wiffle ball or a bat and then
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  like a wiffle ball and he tied it to the ceiling and then that
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  I had to hit the ball. That was one of my exercises and
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  I had to walk. He made a balance beam for me
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  and I walked across that, but. How hard?
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  How hard was it to hit the wiffle ball hanging from the
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  ceiling? I mean, it was somewhat of a
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  challenge, but I got better at got better at doing that.
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  You know, we tried to do different things to try to see
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  if that was going to work or not and just, yeah, it, but it
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  really didn't work in that thing.
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  But I mean, I haven't let it stop me.
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  I still go to the gym and I'll still go to group exercise
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  classes. And I just have to realize, OK,
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  yeah, these people are. I just have to make enough space
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  and yeah, and just give myself that grace and do stuff like
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  that. But that was one of the big
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  factors that they did with with, yeah, just seeing about driving.
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  Do you feel like because you've been disadvantaged in these
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  several ways, do you notice things that you're better at
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  than other people? Are you aware of those things?
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  Yes, one of the things is with taking.
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  I'm also a photographer and people will tell me that I bring
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  out the details in a flower that they miss.
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  And when I don't get a, when I don't have a ride, I mean, I'm
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  really lucky my husband can take me to work.
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  I have a great Co worker who takes me home at the end of the
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  day. But sometimes I don't have a
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  ride to get places and I live in a central location.
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  So I get that's that literally that chance to stop and smell
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  the roses. And I get to notice these, these
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  details that other people don't get to see.
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  I get to see the flower. I get to see other really neat
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  things and I can capture that and I just think to myself,
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  rather than being sad, that's something that I'm able to do
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  that other people don't get that chance because they're busy in
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  their lives. So you find yourself literally
• 15:08
  stopping to smell the roses. You're paying attention to
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  detail in things that you notice other people just whizz on by
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  and don't even give it a second thought.
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  Nope, they don't. That's.
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  Really cool. That is cool.
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  And another thing too, I think is empathy.
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  When I work with my students, I'm able to really understand
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  what a lot of them are going through.
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  Not every single one, but a lot of times it's like hearing a
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  recording of myself. I hate my disability.
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  I wish I didn't have it. I'm not smart.
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  And I get to tell them it's not a bad thing to have a disability
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  and I get to show them how to advocate.
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  And I think I would always be geared towards helping people,
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  but I don't think I would know how it it would honestly feel if
• 15:47
  I didn't go through it myself. I don't have, I don't have a
• 15:51
  disability, but where I'm going to be able to sympathize with
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  you and I'm going to have gone through the same thing is I had
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  allergies when I was a kid. So obviously kids, I guess you
• 16:05
  could say I was bullied, but you know, I got tired of hearing
• 16:08
  about it. It's like you can't do this, you
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  can't do that. You know, kids are mean.
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  But the other thing is I was sick a lot.
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  So I was isolated. I couldn't go out for recess.
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  I couldn't participate in gym class.
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  So I spent a lot of time reading, you know, and by myself
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  with the teacher And the empathy part, I really, I, I, that
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  really hits me hard because I think a lot of my empathy came
• 16:34
  from that. You know you can see when other
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  people are different or disadvantaged than you are.
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  You're not going to be the first person to make fun of that
• 16:43
  person, right? You're going to try and pick
• 16:45
  them up however you can. Exactly.
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  And that is one of the things you can.
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  Yeah. You're not what you're going to
• 16:52
  be able to uplift them. And I also show them how to
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  advocate. And I always just say this, that
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  for my students, one day will end up leaving me.
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  And I hope that they're able to graduate, achieve every single
• 17:03
  dream that they went after. But for a lot of them, their
• 17:06
  disability is going to stay. So they have to learn.
• 17:10
  Yeah. And the power that you have
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  having those, those disabilities, they have
• 17:16
  something to relate to, which is cool because like, like, like my
• 17:20
  grandson, a little man, he has a little bit of speech issue.
• 17:22
  So he has to go to a speech therapist to kind of work with,
• 17:25
  you know, certain annunciations like the TH sound, you know,
• 17:29
  what's the last one we did? But I could see if we can't get
• 17:33
  that cured as he goes moves along in school, he's going to
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  get bullied in TS and things like that.
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  And to me, it's it's always more impactful when the person that
• 17:43
  in your case you're you're you're helping the students
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  around you, but you've been there, done that.
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  So they have somebody they can they can attach themselves to.
• 17:53
  You know what I mean is am I making am I making sense?
• 17:55
  Absolutely. Sometimes I don't feel like I'm
• 17:57
  making sense. So but you have that experience,
• 17:59
  you know, like been there, done that.
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  So you know, the struggle is first hand.
• 18:02
  You know what it's like to go to school and get, like Mike said,
• 18:05
  picked on, maybe bullied, things like that, because you're just a
• 18:07
  little bit different than the norm.
• 18:09
  That I think is is really cool that you do that because it is
• 18:12
  it should give them, empower them.
• 18:14
  That's what I was looking for. It should be able to empower
• 18:16
  them more because hey, Michelle, Michelle overcame this and now
• 18:19
  look what she's doing. She's helping others and she's
• 18:22
  got a blog and she's got this, you know, all these different
• 18:24
  outlets that she's doing. That's cool that I like that.
• 18:27
  I like the fact that you're using that as a vehicle to help
• 18:31
  others and and you know, bring light to their lives as opposed
• 18:34
  to them just, you know, everybody because when you have
• 18:36
  those kind of things, right, there's a depression that can
• 18:38
  set in, right? What was me?
• 18:39
  Why am I different than self pity and all that especially?
• 18:42
  When you're getting picked on constantly, right?
• 18:45
  Yeah. Exactly.
• 18:47
  And that's one of the things, a lot of them, I'm.
• 18:50
  I'm also really good at with kids that might be getting
• 18:52
  bullied by somebody else. Yeah.
• 18:54
  What do you tell these? Kids, I would be interested for
• 18:56
  the people that are listening at home, if they have family
• 18:59
  members with special needs, maybe this will be something
• 19:01
  that'll help them. What do you tell those kids that
• 19:04
  come to you? And they say, you know, Miss
• 19:06
  Michelle, I'm getting bullied all the time.
• 19:08
  What do I do, you know? Well, one of the things I do is
• 19:11
  I always give them the option if they want to report it, it's
• 19:13
  always an option. I say it's your choice.
• 19:15
  But I said there are some things you might be able to do that
• 19:18
  might help you belong. Like for example, if it's the
• 19:20
  lunch room and somebody's sitting at your lunch table and
• 19:24
  you're getting picked on, maybe go try sit at somebody else's
• 19:27
  table because and then if they ask you about it, just be like,
• 19:31
  OK, just trying out a different lunch table.
• 19:33
  I mean, the little things like that, I try to tell them to not
• 19:38
  to not to give that ammo to, you know, fueled with a fire either.
• 19:43
  So if you know that somebody that's going to make they know
• 19:46
  that it's making you upset, that's going to make it a lot
• 19:49
  worse. So sometimes just maybe ignoring
• 19:52
  certain things. I mean, obviously if it does
• 19:54
  involve something that's abuse, we do want that to be taken care
• 19:59
  of and handled. But I find that a lot of times
• 20:02
  when kids just learn. That, you know, it's, I'm not
• 20:06
  going to show that it really bothers me.
• 20:08
  Don't move on to pick on to somebody else.
• 20:10
  And that's what I try to deal with a lot of them.
• 20:13
  And sometimes I'll even take them out of the room.
• 20:14
  I remember I had a couple of students that I was working with
• 20:18
  last year and it was like during a study hall for people that had
• 20:21
  disabilities for our students. And the one girl was getting
• 20:25
  picked on by a couple of boys. And I'd have her sit beside me.
• 20:29
  And then if they tried picking on her, I would just kind of
• 20:32
  deflect like, oh, Oh no, she didn't do that.
• 20:34
  That was me. And they didn't know what to
• 20:37
  say. And then sometimes we even went
• 20:39
  to an Art Room where we would make crafts during classes.
• 20:42
  She had her work done and we would talk about what was going
• 20:46
  on. And that got her out of the room
• 20:47
  away from them. And but we, I just really
• 20:51
  encourage them not to make a big deal out of that.
• 20:55
  That's a good, that's a really good approach.
• 20:57
  Right. That's solid advice.
• 20:59
  And that's one thing that I've always done my whole life.
• 21:03
  But I always joke with Chris, I'm not big enough to be picking
• 21:05
  on people, right? So I always got to think of ways
• 21:07
  to defuse the situation. A lot of times it is just to
• 21:10
  remove yourself from that situation.
• 21:12
  You know, just say I'm not going to entertain you picking on me.
• 21:17
  It's as long as it's like you said, as long as it's not
• 21:20
  abusive. If somebody's abusing somebody
• 21:22
  physically, then we have a whole different conversation.
• 21:25
  But I was alluding to more what you were saying as you know, how
• 21:29
  do we talk people down off the ledge and just make them
• 21:32
  uninterested in what's going on? And a lot of times it is
• 21:35
  ignoring them. Yeah, exactly.
• 21:37
  They feed off that they think you're going to, they think
• 21:40
  they're going to make you cry or they're going to ruin your day
• 21:44
  or, you know, whatever you can think of that you know, bullies
• 21:48
  do. And I had that experience
• 21:50
  growing up. I can remember being really
• 21:52
  emotional about that or just getting really upset.
• 21:55
  I have one girl in particular. It was, you know, even back to
• 21:58
  the point of threats. And luckily I was I was seeing a
• 22:00
  guy that was a couple years older than I was and I was
• 22:03
  telling him about and he goes, you know, I think she's just
• 22:05
  blowing smoke. Next time she says something,
• 22:07
  just be real casual about it. And I'll never forget this is
• 22:11
  when we had pay phones and I was walking through the hall and she
• 22:14
  told me I'm I'm going to kill you and I hate you.
• 22:16
  And I said, oh, that's nice, have a great day.
• 22:19
  And that incredulous look on her face was just priceless.
• 22:24
  And I was really lucky though that that's all it was, was just
• 22:27
  smoke and mirrors. Right.
• 22:29
  What would have what would have been great because you the pay
• 22:31
  phones, if you had a quarter, you could have Travis trittered.
• 22:34
  Oh, here's a quarter call someone who cares that's.
• 22:37
  True. Talk about an irrelevant song
• 22:41
  now, because people like what quarters?
• 22:43
  What do you need a quarter to call somebody for?
• 22:45
  I have a cell phone, right? Exactly.
• 22:47
  What's 1/4? These kids don't even know what
• 22:52
  money is. No.
• 22:55
  They and see there's something to be said too, ignoring it
• 22:59
  because you have to be a very strong willed person to ignore
• 23:01
  somebody that's constantly berating you or not physical but
• 23:05
  but vocal and verbally and and digging.
• 23:08
  It hardly to do as a kid. Yeah, it really is it.
• 23:11
  Really is because it's hard enough to be a kid and then you
• 23:13
  got to go be a teenager. You're going to go through
• 23:16
  puberty, you know, and so then you're dealing with this on top
• 23:20
  of all of that. That's a drag.
• 23:22
  That would be. That would be a drag.
• 23:24
  Yeah. Terrible.
• 23:25
  But look at you now. That's awesome.
• 23:29
  That's awesome. So married.
• 23:31
  Oh, sorry. Go ahead, Mike.
• 23:31
  Oh yeah, I am. I've been married for 10 years
• 23:36
  now. Right on any kids.
• 23:38
  No kids, 2 cats. As I said, those are our kids.
• 23:42
  Jack and Sparrow. OK, cool, cool.
• 23:43
  And then what do you do? What do you do for fun?
• 23:47
  Because obviously you're not living in the classroom and
• 23:49
  stuff like that. I have a lot of friends where we
• 23:52
  do like a lot of reading, like a lot of writing and things we we
• 23:55
  like to do that. I also, my husband and I love to
• 23:58
  travel. We love to go and visit museums
• 24:02
  and gardens. We were at State College over
• 24:04
  the weekend celebrating his birthday and we went to a museum
• 24:08
  and. Is that where Penn State is?
• 24:10
  That is, I spoke at a conference last year and he really liked
• 24:13
  going to the museum. Second largest outdoor football
• 24:17
  stadium in the world. Wow.
• 24:20
  University of Michigan. So what's your husband do?
• 24:25
  He works for a call Center for cable and Internet so.
• 24:30
  So he's the he's the guy that you yell at.
• 24:32
  My internet's not working. Yeah, and he gets to fix it at
• 24:36
  the house. Well, Sir, did you did you turn
• 24:38
  it off? I don't want to turn it off.
• 24:39
  I want it to work, man. Come on, you should know the
• 24:43
  problem. And I need it to work right now.
• 24:46
  I'm sure he always hears that, yeah.
• 24:48
  And. I'm the one that does have the
• 24:49
  patients sometimes. Yeah, that would that's, I think
• 24:52
  that'd be a stressful job, like right next to, you know, maybe
• 24:54
  one lots below the 9/11 operator because you're always dealing
• 24:57
  with people who are frustrated and angry and and mad.
• 25:00
  And you know, like so you, you referenced on your on your
• 25:04
  website here, because I have your website up boys and girls,
• 25:07
  if you want to go there to michellesmission.com and that's
• 25:09
  pluralized. There's there's a massive blog
• 25:12
  in there. You have social feeds, podcast.
• 25:16
  That's all podcast she's been on.
• 25:18
  She has some press releases in there.
• 25:20
  You have a store. What's in the store?
• 25:22
  I saw my Prince, that. Oh, your photography.
• 25:26
  Of my photography, yeah. I'm going to have to go look at
• 25:29
  that. There's a There's a what is you
• 25:31
  got a pink flower. What is that?
• 25:33
  That is a pink Lily, that is. Oh, there it is.
• 25:35
  Yellow. See.
• 25:36
  Rating is fundamental. If I would have just looked to
• 25:38
  the right, I would have saw a photo of Pink Lily.
• 25:42
  Wow. Oh, I like the Rose, the Rose in
• 25:44
  the middle with the the. I don't know what kind of rose
• 25:48
  that is, but it's it's gorgeous. Yeah.
• 25:51
  Very nice. Thank you.
• 25:54
  Oh, there's Jack and Sparrow real.
• 25:55
  Yeah. They are.
• 25:57
  Oh yeah. Chris has a love hate
• 26:01
  relationship. I can't.
• 26:02
  I don't like cats, but it you know, when we're on a computer
• 26:04
  it's fine because they're not bothering me.
• 26:07
  I was referring to the one that kept destroying your backyard.
• 26:09
  Right. Oh, I know I don't.
• 26:10
  Know I hate that. I mean, yeah.
• 26:14
  Yeah, they were his neighbors. Neglectful owners.
• 26:18
  Yeah, yeah. Nobody told us there was 40
• 26:19
  feral cats all around us when we moved in because who owned our
• 26:22
  house was an entity, not an individual.
• 26:24
  So there's nothing to disclose. Oh, no, it's yeah.
• 26:29
  The short version of the long story is my neighbor crossed the
• 26:31
  street, thought I was skinning, killing skinning and burying
• 26:36
  them in my backyard. So much so, she called the
• 26:38
  police. Oh my gosh, the.
• 26:40
  Police sized this up for about 5 minutes, realizable.
• 26:43
  She's a whack A mole. And then so we let them in the
• 26:46
  house. When they walked into our
• 26:48
  entryway, they saw the family portrait of which at the time
• 26:51
  that family portrait was my wife and I, our daughter, who was I
• 26:53
  think probably seven months pregnant, and our son who just
• 26:56
  graduated boot camp as a Marine. So they look right at that like,
• 26:59
  oh, military family. I'm like, yeah.
• 27:02
  So then all of a sudden the, the the tension went away.
• 27:07
  And then so we took him out back, turn on all the all the
• 27:09
  pasture lights and they saw there was no fresh holes and no
• 27:13
  dead cats. And then so as you're leaving,
• 27:15
  I'm like, I know who called me, who called you on me.
• 27:17
  So you can just go across the street to them.
• 27:19
  Tell him I said hi, I know it's you.
• 27:22
  And then as soon as the police left, he went.
• 27:25
  Yep. They're in the base, yeah.
• 27:28
  Yeah, so that's fine. And then and then and right,
• 27:33
  they didn't catch it. And then the neighbor next to
• 27:34
  us, he decided that he was going to put a camera up on the peak
• 27:38
  of his house, in his words, to watch the chicken Hawks.
• 27:42
  Yet he'd been there for four years.
• 27:45
  So they bought into their bullshit that we're killing
• 27:47
  cats. Nobody's paying attention to the
• 27:49
  fact that 4/4 houses down was this 14 acre parcel that was
• 27:54
  being turned over from farm to subdivision.
• 27:58
  Nobody took into account that there's like 3 of the people
• 28:00
  that moved in the neighborhood north of me.
• 28:03
  I'd been here since August. This was February, and all of a
• 28:06
  sudden I'm the one that's making cats disappear.
• 28:08
  Well, coyotes are really didn't. Yeah.
• 28:13
  No. Well, they did and then that
• 28:15
  that for some. Well, the problem is we came and
• 28:17
  we cleaned up the house. The house was a mess.
• 28:19
  The yard was a mess. So, you know, we weren't
• 28:21
  gentrificationing the the street, but we came into a house
• 28:25
  that was in disarray. We bought it for a specific
• 28:28
  reason, to help build something for my daughter and grandson to
• 28:31
  live. So it.
• 28:33
  Was one of those things where we had, you know, we were lucky
• 28:37
  enough to be able to buy it with extra money from our house
• 28:39
  selling and clean things up and like we had 87 tons of crap
• 28:43
  taken out of a front yard, Michelle, that's how bad this
• 28:45
  front yard was. It's an acre.
• 28:47
  So just imagine an overgrown acre of grass, right?
• 28:51
  So as as that whole kind of thing fell into our lap, then
• 28:55
  the neighbors like, oh, I'm looking for chicken hawk.
• 28:57
  So be me, me being me, because I work out daily.
• 29:01
  I would go out back and after I got done working out, strip,
• 29:04
  bite ass naked and and wave to their camera because I can see
• 29:07
  right in our backyard. And I did that until finally my
• 29:11
  hop seed was tall enough that they could no longer see me.
• 29:13
  So every day they had a a free show if they wanted one because
• 29:17
  he claimed he couldn't see my backyard.
• 29:19
  But I would walk in the middle of the backyard and I could see
• 29:21
  the little red dots of the camera.
• 29:22
  And if you can see the red dots of the camera, it can see you.
• 29:24
  Yeah. Exactly.
• 29:26
  You know, they're those people, disrespectful assholes who feel
• 29:30
  like they're entitled. The mayor of the street, even
• 29:32
  though, you know, he's only lived here like what we've been
• 29:34
  for four years. So they've lived here 8 years.
• 29:36
  But you know, there's that. We don't talk to them.
• 29:38
  We just, you know, it is what it is.
• 29:41
  So, you know, that's my life in a nutshell.
• 29:44
  So let's talk about your writing because Michelle's mission.com
• 29:47
  is where you can find her. And you referenced before the
• 29:49
  show that you have some stuff published.
• 29:51
  So let's talk about that. What have you have published?
• 29:53
  Sure, I write a lot about my life with a disability on my
• 29:58
  blog. I do a lot of metaphors to
• 30:00
  explain that nature metaphors. I might talk about the process
• 30:04
  of my disability, you know, just accepting that might be like a
• 30:09
  flower blooming, but a lot of the other stuff that I have
• 30:12
  published is also just about different things that I've
• 30:16
  experienced. I can't remember my very first
• 30:19
  article that got published on the Mighty was whenever I'm we
• 30:22
  moved into our house and I could not unlock the door because I
• 30:27
  had a limited hand dexterity in both of my hands.
• 30:31
  And I finally, I was so frustrated that just gave me
• 30:34
  that courage to write about it because there was a call.
• 30:36
  What's a seemingly easy task for other people, but it's hard for
• 30:40
  you with yours. And I got a great response with
• 30:43
  that. People were like, well, that's
• 30:44
  my story. And I thought I was the only one
• 30:47
  that struggled with that. And that encouraged me to write
• 30:49
  more articles for the Mighty. I also expanded to write
• 30:53
  different articles for other places as well.
• 30:55
  Sometimes there might be a prompt that I might follow and
• 30:59
  it it'll get published. I also have stories published in
• 31:04
  two anthologies and a third one coming out in the in November,
• 31:08
  hopefully. And thank you.
• 31:11
  My first anthology I got published in was it was a
• 31:15
  workshop that I went to and it was called Rediscovering Your
• 31:18
  Story. And Anami group had this and I
• 31:22
  was the only one that had a learning disability.
• 31:24
  Other people had some mental health issues.
• 31:26
  We had some other ones that had addiction issues in the past and
• 31:29
  we're working on being sober with their lives.
• 31:33
  And we had different stories that we wrote.
• 31:35
  Some of them were about our hair and some of them was about
• 31:38
  what's your favorite place to go to.
• 31:40
  And I also had the chance to write about what is the most
• 31:43
  important lesson that I've learned in my life.
• 31:45
  And it's for purchase on Amazon. And the second anthology is the
• 31:52
  baggage we carry. And that was the prompt and I
• 31:56
  wrote about the baggage of having a learning disability and
• 31:59
  some just some of that that has happened.
• 32:01
  And that is also that's available for purchase as well.
• 32:05
  And the third one will be through our lens and it is the
• 32:10
  stories of people that have different kinds of disabilities.
• 32:14
  A lot of people there are no diverse, like I'm going to talk
• 32:17
  about having a learning disability, but other people in
• 32:19
  the in the book they have autism or other disabilities as well.
• 32:25
  That's that's and see the cool thing about writing about what
• 32:29
  you struggle with, like you said, then other people read it
• 32:31
  were like, oh, I, I, that's me. We had we had a family who went
• 32:35
  through the perils of heroin and meth addiction.
• 32:37
  And I was very vocal about it and I was out there about how
• 32:39
  easy it was to get it. This is well before it was, you
• 32:42
  know, public billboards and stuff.
• 32:44
  This is where if you looked at my family from the outside and
• 32:48
  you would think there's no way on God's green earth this is
• 32:50
  going to affect Chris's family. So when I dropped my original
• 32:54
  back then was a Facebook live about it last time I found it
• 32:58
  because now it's just kind of lost somewhere in the in the in
• 33:00
  the World Wide Web with 67,000 views for this 15 minute
• 33:04
  discussion about how easy it was to get heroin if he got 20
• 33:06
  bucks. Doesn't matter who you are,
• 33:07
  doesn't matter where you live, it doesn't matter what your
• 33:09
  economic status is. And I, I would have people
• 33:13
  randomly walk up to me because they recognize me from that
• 33:16
  thanking me because then that that empowered them to have a
• 33:19
  conversation with their son or with their daughter.
• 33:22
  My wife and I would walk into stores and people were like, oh,
• 33:24
  there's the queen because I reference her as the queen based
• 33:27
  on that and the connections of that made alone just in opening
• 33:31
  other people's eyes and having those conversations that they
• 33:34
  never thought they had to have because nobody realized for 20
• 33:38
  bucks you can get black tower heroin.
• 33:40
  And this was a very normal suburban community in the East
• 33:45
  Valley of Arizona that you just never would have thought this
• 33:48
  was relevant. So what you're doing is great
• 33:51
  because then it it makes people realize that other people are
• 33:54
  going through those same struggles, which then sheds
• 33:56
  light on it, which then sparks conversation, which then helps
• 34:00
  things get turned around to the positive instead of the
• 34:02
  negative. So kudos to you for doing that.
• 34:04
  Absolutely. Able to talk about it.
• 34:07
  So many people just won't talk about it, right?
• 34:10
  They bury their head in the sand and act like it's not supposed
• 34:13
  to have happened. If it happens, it happens.
• 34:15
  You have to be able to know what to do and how to deal with it,
• 34:19
  right? You can't just say it'll rectify
• 34:22
  itself because addiction doesn't rectify itself.
• 34:25
  Disabilities don't rectify themselves.
• 34:27
  You know, you have to learn how to live with them.
• 34:30
  And in an addicts case, you can overcome it, right?
• 34:32
  In your case, you're not going to overcome your disability.
• 34:35
  So it's really cool that you're showing people that not only
• 34:39
  they're not alone. I agree with Chris and a lot of
• 34:41
  things that were wrong with me. Just knowing that I wasn't the
• 34:45
  only one, you know, was very helpful.
• 34:49
  I agree 100% because when I was growing up, I mean, I didn't
• 34:53
  know a whole lot of people that had learning disabilities that
• 34:57
  were successful adults that went to college and female and
• 35:02
  struggled with meth because most of everything that was out
• 35:06
  there, sorry guys, it was mainly white men that were the struggle
• 35:11
  with reading or paying attention.
• 35:13
  And I didn't know anybody with that.
• 35:16
  And one of the things too is whenever we started with the
• 35:22
  Internet, there's a lot of people out there.
• 35:24
  I got to meet other people that have my disability and are girls
• 35:28
  and some are guys too. I mean, it definitely effects
• 35:30
  everybody, buddy, you know, it doesn't discriminate.
• 35:34
  But it was just really amazing though to meet other people that
• 35:38
  okay, that's what I struggle with.
• 35:39
  I'm not the only person that does that and coming and talking
• 35:43
  about it because. That parts huge, yeah.
• 35:46
  Yeah, because I wouldn't have hide.
• 35:48
  Yeah, Common denominator. It's like if you like the
• 35:50
  Steelers, right? Yeah.
• 35:51
  When you were wearing a Steelers jersey, it's.
• 35:53
  You don't have to know the person wearing a football
• 35:55
  jersey. When you run into the store, you
• 35:57
  can just make a comment about their team and you have an
• 35:59
  instant dialogue for 20 minutes. Yep.
• 36:00
  You know, exactly. I mean, right.
• 36:02
  So it's the same kind of concept.
• 36:03
  Now, one of the things you reference something with your
• 36:06
  hands. What is that?
• 36:07
  That is with being having limited hand dexterity.
• 36:11
  We didn't, I didn't know that until I was an adult.
• 36:13
  When I was a kid, things would drop out of my hands and I'd
• 36:16
  have terrible, I have terrible handwriting and people would
• 36:19
  just think, oh, she's clumsy or the people would really put it
• 36:24
  as a character flaw with my handwriting and I learned how to
• 36:27
  type and that was a game changer.
• 36:30
  But we just thought, OK, she's clumsy and that just OK.
• 36:33
  Maybe it's learning disability related what whatever, but I was
• 36:37
  in for an evaluation because I wanted to.
• 36:39
  I was thinking about going back to grad school and I remember
• 36:44
  they they never tested me for that, but they did it this one
• 36:47
  and it's a it's actually a funny story.
• 36:50
  I was the the whole evaluation is 8 hours long and so they tell
• 36:55
  you, OK, order food and just you get a lunch break.
• 36:58
  So I ordered food and then they took me up to get evaluated for
• 37:01
  having with my hands and I sat up there and I, they blindfolded
• 37:06
  me and I had to put shapes in a shape sorter.
• 37:09
  And right as I'm putting, I'm blindfolded and putting shapes
• 37:12
  in a shape sorter, my food comes and I had the delivery driver
• 37:16
  brought it over and I had to sign a paper blindfolded.
• 37:21
  And I just wonder what that delivery I thought was going on
• 37:24
  in that office. But, and it all made sense after
• 37:30
  they told me I had limited hand dexterity in both of my hands,
• 37:34
  that I wasn't just a klutz. I wasn't.
• 37:37
  I just didn't have the the handwriting of a serial killer.
• 37:41
  I mean, it was there. There was a reason behind.
• 37:43
  But you didn't find that out till you were an adult.
• 37:45
  Yeah, in my 30s. Wow, Wow.
• 37:48
  Yeah, because wow. Because earlier you mentioned
• 37:50
  the opening a door was hard. So then so so I didn't I and
• 37:54
  being a writer too and and type typing, high school class typing
• 37:57
  was the only thing that's carried me with me my entire
• 37:59
  life. But it's I didn't, I didn't, I
• 38:01
  didn't honestly, for, for whatever reason, I didn't go
• 38:04
  there when you referenced the the hand issues and I was like,
• 38:08
  well, I wonder how she writes? I was thinking it was, you know,
• 38:11
  like talk to text or something because I thought your hands
• 38:14
  were like, you know, I couldn't, you know, like just weren't
• 38:16
  functional. Right.
• 38:18
  I'm, no, they are functional. I can move them.
• 38:20
  But if you look at the scores that when they compare my my
• 38:25
  testing with, I'm on the level of somebody that has brain
• 38:29
  damage with hands just with how they move.
• 38:32
  Yeah. Is that what they attribute it
• 38:34
  to? Is the wiring in your brain is
• 38:37
  just not? In some ways, yes, it's the
• 38:39
  wiring. And I always think, I mean I
• 38:42
  had, I was not given a clear answer on that, but I think that
• 38:44
  it all goes back to one source. It's just my brain is wired and
• 38:48
  those signals that it sends out to my hands like it does with
• 38:52
  visual perception and everything, it's just it's not
• 38:55
  working that way. So I'm like at the negative,
• 38:59
  like one one hand, I think my right, my dominant hand has
• 39:03
  more, but my other one, it's like you're, you're in like -0
• 39:07
  almost with that and there. But thankfully I came across a
• 39:13
  diagnosis at a really good time. And, and where we're at, there's
• 39:17
  a lot more than when I was a kid growing up.
• 39:19
  For people that that have that, there are key helpers.
• 39:23
  If you want to be able to unlock the door and lock it, there's
• 39:28
  jar openers that work, bottle openers, an electric can opener.
• 39:34
  We figured that out when I was in my 20s and I could not use a
• 39:37
  manual one. It looked like trying to operate
• 39:40
  it was like trying to operate a spaceship.
• 39:42
  So I mean, there, there's a lot that that has come out and of
• 39:47
  course, if we go out in public and I there's a door and it's an
• 39:51
  automatic door. I always like those.
• 39:54
  And that's the the beauty of that.
• 39:55
  It's, it's universal design. So and everybody can do that,
• 39:59
  whether it's a mom that has a stroller and she's trying to
• 40:03
  wrangle that and her kids and trying to have grocery bags that
• 40:08
  automatic door help somebody out.
• 40:10
  People movers. If you go to the airport
• 40:13
  elevators they can help and ramps and rails.
• 40:17
  Those are all things that can help anybody, not just a person
• 40:20
  with a disability. Sure, I love the walkways, the
• 40:25
  moving walkway, sidewalks and airports.
• 40:27
  Those are game changers, you know.
• 40:29
  Yeah. Yeah, especially when you have
• 40:31
  to go in Arizona airports. So spread out it's it's yeah.
• 40:35
  But yeah, those are those are definitely game changers for
• 40:38
  sure right now. What else you want to talk
• 40:42
  about, Michelle? I don't.
• 40:46
  Know so you have a booking So what So what is it that you want
• 40:48
  to get booked for Is this just for people you you you like
• 40:51
  events like what do you do you you speak to people I obviously
• 40:55
  podcasts. I do on podcasts.
• 40:57
  I also have conferences that I, I do as well.
• 41:01
  I'm going to be speaking at a conference, PA conference for
• 41:05
  the blind and I'm going to be talking about resources when
• 41:09
  somebody graduates on what are some of those resources that are
• 41:12
  available. I also speak on transitioning
• 41:17
  when somebody is done with school.
• 41:19
  I've, I got to speak in Penn State last year about that.
• 41:23
  And I also had the opportunity to talk about that at another
• 41:28
  conference. Well, actually it was a women's
• 41:32
  empowerment breakfast a number of years ago and I got to speak
• 41:35
  at a disability symposium. So I really just try to go out
• 41:40
  and to be able to share my story and to be able to help other
• 41:43
  people. That's fantastic.
• 41:45
  Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah.
• 41:48
  And so the the about me shit, it's an invisible disability,
• 41:52
  which like we talked about you, you wouldn't know because of
• 41:55
  what it is. You have a bachelor's degree in
• 41:58
  community programming for Americans with Disabilities.
• 42:01
  Yes, you've been published in The Mighty Non the Mighty, The
• 42:04
  Non Verbal Learning Project, Dis Kalula Blog.
• 42:10
  Dis Calculia blog, Yeah. OK, they were elected Spoony.
• 42:15
  That's a that's a fun name, The Calopine Collective.
• 42:19
  Imagine the world as one magazine, a world gathering
• 42:24
  that's amazing all and all the like.
• 42:27
  Legit, I love the fact that you're out there sharing your
• 42:29
  story, sharing your journey, empowering others, giving them
• 42:33
  resources to better their lives with just the experience and the
• 42:36
  knowledge that you've gained by by going through your struggles,
• 42:39
  which is just amazing. We love that on the show.
• 42:41
  That's why we do this. We like to talk to people and
• 42:43
  learn things and expand our knowledge and understanding of I
• 42:47
  call it life resume. That's fantastic.
• 42:51
  Yeah. So like when you go out and you
• 42:53
  talk to these people, what are things that they're not
• 42:56
  expecting that you encountered, that you, you know, what kind of
• 43:00
  advice do you give them? Here's what you're not
• 43:02
  expecting. You're going from high school
• 43:05
  life, college life, whatever, to now, you're going to be expected
• 43:09
  to take care of yourself as an adult, right?
• 43:11
  Right. What I tell a lot of people is I
• 43:14
  can give you the names of the resources that that are out
• 43:18
  there, but it's really up to you to be the one that you seek out
• 43:23
  those services. Like when I was in college, it
• 43:25
  was up to me. I had definitely register with
• 43:30
  the Office for Students with Disabilities, but I had to go up
• 43:33
  to professors and I had to tell them I have a disability and
• 43:37
  these are the services that I need and to have that
• 43:39
  confidence. And I did not have that
• 43:41
  confidence when I went to Community College.
• 43:43
  And a lot of that was because of what other people told me.
• 43:46
  I was told by a learning support teacher that you're most you
• 43:51
  can't go to college. You, you, you have, you're bad
• 43:53
  at math. Why don't you go to a trade
• 43:55
  school? Well, nothing you're interested
• 43:57
  in me. I had a psychiatrist in an
• 43:59
  evaluation that told me, well, you're most based on these
• 44:02
  scores, you're not going to be able to go beyond Community
• 44:05
  College. And I I've also find it funny
• 44:09
  whenever I told them that I wanted to write and wanted to do
• 44:14
  newscast that they told me that that would be beyond my
• 44:17
  capabilities and. I hate when adults do that to
• 44:20
  kids. I just do.
• 44:22
  But question though, did that motivate you to be like, I'm
• 44:27
  going to do this and it'll be like, ha ha, look at me now,
• 44:30
  bitches. Yeah, but do you know how many?
• 44:32
  Not to interrupt you, Michelle, I'll let you answer the
• 44:34
  question. That's a great question.
• 44:35
  But do you know how many not Michelle's there are out there?
• 44:38
  She's so 99. Dreams were shattered by that
• 44:42
  attitude, and Michelle persevered through.
• 44:45
  So, you know, thank goodness she's out there.
• 44:46
  But is that why you persevered? You know, in the very beginning
• 44:52
  I did not think I could do it and I wasn't there like, ha ha,
• 44:55
  I'm going to do it anyways. I've went forward scared.
• 44:58
  I didn't know if this was going to work.
• 45:00
  Out. So you kind of believed what
• 45:01
  they were telling? You, I, I did and I took that
• 45:05
  into call and that was probably my hardest years.
• 45:08
  I think we're Community College as an adult, one of those.
• 45:12
  To talk to you now you're super confident, you know you're
• 45:15
  smiling all time, you know what you're talking about.
• 45:17
  That's awesome. Right, I haven't.
• 45:20
  I've really had a support from friends.
• 45:23
  Definitely they were, they couldn't fix my disability.
• 45:26
  They couldn't go in there and do that.
• 45:28
  And that's something I tell my students all the time.
• 45:30
  Some of them will say, oh, I have this mental health
• 45:32
  disorder. I take medication.
• 45:34
  I don't need this, I don't need this class.
• 45:35
  And I say, you know what, you you can take the medicine, but
• 45:39
  it's only going to get you so far.
• 45:40
  You have to be the one that does all the work, all the hard work
• 45:44
  on on that. So that's, that's another thing
• 45:46
  I tell them is you have to do a lot of that work.
• 45:49
  I'll tell people that. And I was afraid, especially
• 45:53
  whenever I went to Community College face more stigma.
• 45:57
  Had a professor that told me I was going to have limited job
• 45:59
  choices if I asked for a calculator.
• 46:03
  I was told we use our brains in this class but I just push
• 46:06
  forward and I was a. Yeah.
• 46:09
  And one of your, one of your advantages given to you to be in
• 46:14
  school with your disability was you were able to use a
• 46:16
  calculator, I'm sure, right. They couldn't deny you that.
• 46:20
  Right. And I had specialized
• 46:21
  instruction and I never got out of that for math.
• 46:24
  I got out of it for reading. I got out of it for a lot of
• 46:28
  different things. So you ended up in general
• 46:30
  classes for like with. Academics Yep.
• 46:34
  And with except for math, except for math and I had a resource
• 46:37
  room and yeah, thank you. But I mean, it was academic.
• 46:42
  We a lot of people thought, well, why don't, why don't you
• 46:44
  put her in AP biology or science class?
• 46:50
  And my parents were like, no, we're we're setting rough for
• 46:52
  success. We know what she can handle.
• 46:55
  And I was able to make honor roll and I was in with academic
• 46:58
  kids for for a lot of my classes.
• 47:00
  And I had those supports, but I still was pulled out.
• 47:03
  Yeah, it it really was. I I had a test read aloud to me.
• 47:07
  I had extra time on my tests. And then when I went to college,
• 47:12
  once I went to university, that's when I got really serious
• 47:15
  about using all the services and advocacy I would, I had.
• 47:20
  I didn't have the test read allowed to me, but I had
• 47:22
  extended test time on my test. I had tutoring.
• 47:25
  I actually got a note taker and that was a game changer too
• 47:29
  because I could focus on in on my Class A lot more.
• 47:33
  And I had tutoring and I also had professors that understood.
• 47:37
  And I was really lucky in both areas to have that in Community
• 47:40
  College and at university. At Community College, I was
• 47:45
  really fortunate to get a math waiver because of having the
• 47:49
  disability. And I was able to substitute
• 47:51
  another class. I, the professor could see I was
• 47:54
  really trying. I was going to class after class
• 47:56
  and was not able to pass any of the tests except for one of
• 47:59
  them. And I was doing tutoring and the
• 48:02
  tutoring team didn't understand what was going on.
• 48:05
  But luckily we, the office for students with disabilities,
• 48:09
  said, OK, why don't we at least try to submit a waiver, put all
• 48:12
  your documentation together. And I was granted that.
• 48:17
  And then when I got to university, I wasn't as
• 48:20
  fortunate with that. I had to take the class.
• 48:25
  And I can remember. I took a philosophy based math
• 48:27
  course and I can remember I was in this determination of, well,
• 48:32
  do I take this or do I just take an algebra class?
• 48:35
  And I, I was sitting around and there was a chess game and I had
• 48:39
  someone, I said, hey, you want to play chess with me?
• 48:42
  And we played the shortest chess game in history.
• 48:44
  And it's no surprise that I lost.
• 48:47
  And I told the person, I said, I don't think that.
• 48:51
  Yeah, I'm not good. I'm not good at math.
• 48:53
  We're trying to figure out what kind of math class to take.
• 48:56
  And I said I might, I'm thinking about doing the philosophy based
• 49:00
  math. And he looked at me and goes,
• 49:02
  well, actually I'm in that department.
• 49:04
  And I'd really suggest that you take the philosophy based math
• 49:07
  class because guys in my department aren't that nice
• 49:09
  about it. And I had the most wonderful
• 49:12
  professor that knew I was trying, I was going to tutoring,
• 49:16
  I was going to class, I had office hours and I, I couldn't
• 49:19
  pass one class, one test. And he knew I was really doing
• 49:24
  that. And he passed me along.
• 49:25
  I got AD and that was my only DI go to university and that's all
• 49:30
  I needed. And but the support though, I
• 49:33
  mean, a lot of people didn't understand what I was going
• 49:36
  through. People were.
• 49:36
  So cool that they recognized it and yeah, no matter what they
• 49:40
  did, they were never going to be able to help you, and they
• 49:43
  didn't want to be the people to stand in your way.
• 49:45
  That's really cool. Yeah, that is cool.
• 49:48
  So they were the opposite of the assholes that told you that you
• 49:51
  were never going to make it past Community College if you were
• 49:54
  even lucky to get that far, right?
• 49:55
  What a horrible thing to say to a a young mind you know exactly
• 49:59
  they wanted. To be a They wanted to be a
• 50:00
  welder man. Yeah, well, I think the one,
• 50:04
  this was a learning support teacher before that you I
• 50:07
  couldn't, I couldn't try. I thought I should do Protective
• 50:09
  Services. Now how was I supposed to drive
• 50:13
  a police car? Well.
• 50:15
  And then I guess in their defense, you hadn't been
• 50:18
  diagnosed yet, but the trades were actually the worst advice
• 50:22
  for you because you have the problem with your hands as well.
• 50:25
  If I were. Never going to be a Carpenter.
• 50:27
  No, it wasn't going to be a Carpenter.
• 50:29
  I, I have great respect for the person who does my hair, but I
• 50:33
  certainly cannot cut my own hair or you color or things like
• 50:39
  that. I, I, I would get a lot of
• 50:41
  complaints. I could probably do the culinary
• 50:43
  arts program, but it just isn't really what I feel like I was
• 50:47
  cut out to do. So it would have been a lot
• 50:49
  harder for me to do a lot of those things, especially.
• 50:52
  With the hands. What?
• 50:54
  Especially with the hand. The hand thing.
• 50:56
  Yeah, exactly. Yeah, Cutting things, you know
• 50:59
  that that would be really hard. Is that the hardest thing to do
• 51:03
  as a teacher, especially of, you know, kids with special needs,
• 51:07
  is that the hardest thing is to get them to come to terms with
• 51:11
  they're not going to be able to do certain things that they see
• 51:15
  what we would consider. I hate this word but normal
• 51:18
  kids, right? It, it, it really is it.
• 51:21
  It's hard whenever maybe they can't, they can't do something.
• 51:24
  Or a lot of our students are in regular Ed classes and basic
• 51:28
  classes. Right.
• 51:30
  And I guess that's what I was alluding to.
• 51:31
  Yeah. See those kids on a daily basis,
• 51:33
  they go play kickball or whatever.
• 51:35
  And like you were saying, when you were a young girl, you
• 51:39
  couldn't tell that the ball was coming at you, right?
• 51:41
  So what? You were scared every time.
• 51:43
  Right, right. Things like that, they're never.
• 51:45
  You were never going to get over that because you had a visual.
• 51:49
  Yeah, you. Know negative that was keeping
• 51:52
  you from being able to see that ball coming at you.
• 51:55
  And a lot of times too, yeah, excuse me, that's a factor.
• 51:59
  And then I also get our students, they, they can't hide.
• 52:04
  They know, everybody knows they go to learning support or they
• 52:07
  go to resource to get a test read.
• 52:09
  They know they have a class with the study hall there.
• 52:12
  And that carries a lot of stigma for so many of us.
• 52:14
  I I can just remember. That a lot of them probably have
• 52:16
  visual outward where, you know, maybe they have ticks that
• 52:20
  people see right and they can't hide that.
• 52:22
  So that's even worse when you're in that shape where I know just
• 52:26
  from being a kid myself. And we had several, you know, we
• 52:31
  had a learning department in our high school for sure.
• 52:34
  And I was always the person that would defend those.
• 52:39
  You. Know, tell the bullies.
• 52:41
  Hey what? You know that kid can't defend
• 52:43
  himself man. It's not cool, you know?
• 52:45
  But those are always going to be the kids that people pick on 1st
• 52:48
  as the ones that have the outward ticks, right?
• 52:52
  And it's, it's more more and it's more so because they're
• 52:54
  afraid they don't understand. So instead.
• 52:56
  Of I'm glad you said that, I've been meaning to say that too.
• 52:59
  Yeah, instead of trying to be empathetic and understand the
• 53:02
  situation, they automatically turn to the bullying side
• 53:05
  because they don't get it and they're afraid.
• 53:07
  They're afraid of it. I, I worked in, in before.
• 53:09
  I do what I do now. I, I worked in the field with
• 53:12
  mentally handicapped and, and mental illness people.
• 53:15
  So anything and everything in the spectrum from autism to
• 53:18
  mental retardation, mild Mr. Extremely R, affective organic
• 53:22
  disorder, bipolar, manic depressives, Down syndrome, all
• 53:26
  levels of functionality, low functioning to high functioning.
• 53:29
  I, you know, my, my group of, of guys that I took care of, you
• 53:33
  know, until they open their mouth, you wouldn't know.
• 53:35
  Like I, I flew one, I took him home a couple times to use your
• 53:39
  organ. And unless he opened his mouth,
• 53:40
  you'd have no idea. Just have no idea.
• 53:43
  Now, when I put the headphones on him for the plane ride,
• 53:45
  because music kind of soothed him, I didn't realize he was
• 53:49
  going to start singing. And he started singing knocking
• 53:51
  on Heaven's Door because he left Guns and Roses on the plane in
• 53:54
  the middle of the air, you know, And so once he started singing,
• 53:58
  it's like, well, I'm not going to, I'm not going to stop him
• 54:00
  because, you know, it's keeping him at Bay.
• 54:02
  And but unless you unless you know, you don't know with the
• 54:08
  with the bulk of the population I'd dealt with, but the Down
• 54:10
  syndrome, you can see and you can tell them the autistic, you
• 54:12
  can see because they have the takes like Mike said.
• 54:15
  And they without exception, all of them are bullied in their
• 54:18
  lifetime because they just were. What you don't understand, you
• 54:20
  fear. So what do you fear?
• 54:21
  You have to you feel like you have to exert yourself.
• 54:23
  You got to be the alpha male and even women too, right?
• 54:27
  Women are just as bad at bullying as as men are.
• 54:30
  I think a little bit more so, especially in the in the teenage
• 54:33
  drama era with females. My wife was was bullied by
• 54:37
  somebody and, you know, kind of talk down on her kind of looks
• 54:41
  and then, you know, the irony of life now this woman, you know,
• 54:44
  her face looks like a long horse and, you know, and making a
• 54:47
  beautiful human. So it's kind of like, you know,
• 54:51
  but we don't we're not those type of people, but it's still
• 54:54
  kind of that thing like, yeah, OK, how pretty are you now?
• 54:58
  You know, because. But you carry that like you
• 55:00
  carry that. There was there was a couple
• 55:02
  kids. I was bullied that bullied me.
• 55:04
  And I could still drop their names.
• 55:06
  I'm not going to but, and it was just more out of fear for
• 55:10
  whatever reason, they were afraid that I had asthma and I,
• 55:13
  you know, I was kind of like Mike's sick kid.
• 55:16
  If you know, if I'm going to, if I'm, if I'm that kid nowadays,
• 55:19
  I'm kicked out of school because I was gone more than I was there
• 55:22
  because, you know, we moved from Illinois because I was going to
• 55:25
  die. My asthma was so bad.
• 55:26
  So we moved to Arizona and they were, you know, half the school
• 55:30
  year. Sometimes I missed, I got held
• 55:31
  back in 4th grade because I just didn't go to 4th grade.
• 55:34
  So, you know, when I would show up, I was always the awkward,
• 55:37
  sickly looking kid. So I was AI was a brilliant
• 55:40
  punching bag, right? Luckily it wasn't as bad as it
• 55:44
  could have been, but I, I feel that.
• 55:46
  So, and that goes back to what I said earlier, the fact that you
• 55:49
  can empower these kids because you've been there, done that,
• 55:51
  and you're living with it and you're living proof that you can
• 55:53
  overcome and you can be successful and, and you can
• 55:56
  reach heights that other people didn't believe you could.
• 55:59
  You're just a superhuman, Michelle.
• 56:01
  It's like the life resume that I preach.
• 56:02
  It's just fantastic because those could have gone the other
• 56:05
  way. Those are the people that need.
• 56:06
  It, you know, you could have taken the easy road and just put
• 56:09
  like, what was me living off the state, you know, living in a van
• 56:12
  down by the river, you know, and not being a productive member of
• 56:15
  society. Not that your disabilities were
• 56:19
  that extreme, but I think you follow what I'm saying.
• 56:21
  It's cool that you've you've taken the path you have and and
• 56:23
  you're so out there with everything and sharing and
• 56:27
  teaching and helping people grow, and that's just that's
• 56:29
  cool, man. That's a good testament to who
• 56:31
  you are as a human and who your character is.
• 56:34
  And so you, you know, beautiful soul man for sure.
• 56:36
  I can see why Jack and Sparrow love you.
• 56:37
  Oh makes. Sense.
• 56:43
  Well, that was awesome. Anything else you want to talk
• 56:45
  about before we wrap things up? I just want to encourage people
• 56:49
  that have disabilities or who don't to know what they want and
• 56:53
  to be able to find a way to do it.
• 56:55
  And it's like my dad always told me, success doesn't always come
• 56:59
  in the package that you expect, but sometimes it comes in
• 57:02
  something even better. That's awesome.
• 57:05
  That is awesome. I love that.
• 57:07
  Michellesmission.com This is the Christian Mike show.
• 57:10
  We leave. We leave every episode like
• 57:11
  this. If you're having a bad day, if
• 57:13
  you're feeling down and depressed and you want to take
• 57:14
  your life, don't do it. Somebody Loves You.
• 57:16
  Somebody will miss you. Don't leave a hole in somebody's
• 57:18
  heart because you didn't have the courage to just step back.
• 57:21
  Take a breath, meditate, reach out to somebody that you know
• 57:24
  will talk to you, help you get off that that Cliff that you're
• 57:27
  on tomorrow will be tomorrow will be a better day.
• 57:30
  So wake up and and and be present and be involved because
• 57:34
  somebody does love you like we do.
• 57:36
  Thank you very much, Michelle for being on the show.
• 57:38
  We will get you all the content once we get it up and running.
• 57:42
  Definitely. You know, as you go on a life
• 57:43
  you ever want to come back on, just shoot us a message.
• 57:45
  We like to have people come back on and update us where?
• 57:47
  They're yeah, if you're going to release that third anthology in
• 57:50
  November. Yeah.
• 57:54
  Yeah, yeah, because, you know, this is how we roll.
• 57:56
  Nice, easy conversation, have fun, learn and, you know, Share
• 57:59
  your story. And again, everybody who want to
• 58:01
  find Michelle, it's Michelle's mission.com.
• 58:03
  It's plural. Just don't do Michelle because
• 58:05
  of all these other things. Come up.
• 58:07
  It's Michelle's mission.com, and you'll find all her stuff.
• 58:11
  Booker, have her on your show. Have her come talk to you
• 58:13
  because, you know, this has been a great conversation.
• 58:15
  We've learned a lot. Invisible disabilities are
• 58:19
  there, you just don't know they're there.
• 58:20
  So someone like Michelle helps empower and get people to live
• 58:23
  fuller and healthier and much more productive lives, right?
• 58:29
  Absolutely. Peace.
• 58:30
  See you guys all next week. Thank you.
• 58:33
  Love you brother. Peace, love you too man Thanks
• 58:36
  Michelle. Nice to meet.
• 58:43
  You. On your journey beyond the
• 59:02
  trail, behind your eyes, yourself and meet yourself.
• 59:09
  Take a moment, look until you see him.
• 59:13
  Fight the battle that you bought Wheel.
• 59:17
  Fight the battle, but you bought Wheel.
• 59:21
  Who is this baby? Oh yeah.
• 1:00:28
  Come down here, we haven't bounced
• 1:00:46
  our leading exam from fighting. Wait for the dead or when?
• 1:00:54
  It's going around. Here, but in the wind you ain't
• 1:00:58
  no creature. We're playing Smound you should
• 1:01:03
  you put it on the almighty bed. You got a dream.
• 1:01:08
  Who in your life to keep our soul in every man.
• 1:01:15
  Take the trip behind your eyes. Feel the soul.
• 1:01:20
  And when you shine now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 1:01:29
  yeah, yeah. Take a moment.
• 1:01:34
  Look at you. See him fight your family.
• 1:01:37
  To you more clear. You gotta, you gotta.
• 1:02:06
  You gotta, you gotta, you gotta. The.