Day 410 - my very own Darcy

Whilst I may not have given the nuances of my course much space on this blog (prior to yesterday's post) I have certainly illustrated the passion I feel for my subjects - as well as the impact that both literature and theatre have had on my journey towards this goal. I could even argue that it is thanks to the arts that Walking by 2013 even exists because, without my love of books, my relationship with Starlight might never have begun - and I've certainly talked a lot about that, with more than a little help from Jane Austen. However, contrary to the implications of the title, this post will not consist of yet another diatribe on the brilliance of Pride and Prejudice - nor will it be a soppy homage to a newfound love interest who I think is the greatest being ever to tread the earth.

At least, not quite. Have no fear, Gramma (and Mama), I'm still single, so you've not missed anything over there in South Africa. In fact, you're among the select few to have seen photographic evidence of my post's topic. For, although I won't be welcoming a human companion into my life in the near future, I will soon be blessed with one of the canine variety - and, since he's male, I'm sure my dear readers will have little trouble guessing his name, if they don't know it already.

I'm not getting him until the end of July, so he's not directly related to this mission, but I can assure you that my efforts in the ambulatory sphere will not cease after graduation. Far from it - I even hope that some day we'll be able to stride over Hampstead Heath together and he'll be the one struggling to keep up with my exuberant pace. For now, though, I thought it was about time I uploaded pictures - and, because I'd rather keep his Facebook presence to a minimum until he's actually home with me, this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

So, blogsphere, meet my beloved Darcy:

With his breeder, Jan, after a flanneling down!

Having been to visit him once with his brothers and sisters, I can say he's gentle, quiet and reserved, so methinks I chose the right name! Hopefully you'll love him as much as I do!

Day 409 - all for the love of literature (and theatre)

Two days ago I posted about CSC, a group of people who have contributed their efforts to my fundraising but had, until then, not been mentioned here. Today I'd like to do the same for the Department at Warwick whose ongoing support has been the constant undercurrent of my writings on this journey, but has yet to have a dedicated post - the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies. For you see, although I have often written of my love for my course (a joint-honours in English and Theatre), I don't think I have been clear enough along the way about the fact that I wouldn't be on this mission to walk to collect my degree (or even have a degree to collect) if it were not for the ongoing support of my department and the lovely people who work within it.

Due to the nature of my disability, I am at times (sans botox) in quite a deal of pain. This arises principally from spasms, and gives rise, in turn, to a need for extensions on assessed work, as well as modifications to examined situations - however begrudgingly I might admit it. Such measures would have not been possible without the support of the wonderful Academic Office staff (Caroline Griffin, Heather Pilbin and Sarah Box) or the feats performed by the brilliant Exams Secretary (Tracie Williams). Nor would they have been actioned without the blessing of the Head of Department (Catherine Bates) or the many forms signed by the various Directors of Undergraduate Studies (Liz Barry, Christiania Whitehead and Daniel Katz) with whom I have had the pleasure of dealing over the past three years. Then, of course, there are the tutors who have taught my seminars and given my lectures, sadly too numerous to mention individually, being spread across two faculties - but all of whom have been inspiring, inclusive and incredibly understanding. My gratitude knows no bounds, and I have learnt so very much. My primary ports of call, of course, have been my Personal Tutor (Carol Rutter, and Tess Grant in her stead for second year) and the other stalwart of our theatrical niche, Tony Howard - I truly do not think I would have survived without all three of you, and I want you to be aware of the extent of my thanks.

Having been so wonderfully supported, I really could not ask for anything more - and yet now I am compelled to let my gratitude spill out of the cup of intellectual enquiry and run over into the realms of personal, social interaction. For, as though the lengths to which the entire department have gone to provide me with academic assistance weren't enough, members of the faculty have also been responsible for a huge share of the fundraising which has allowed me to reach (and to exceed) my target amount, as of today. I am so incredibly thankful - and, since it was the course they teach which provided me with the inspiration to begin this quest, it feels rather apt.

Starlight got me to English and Theatre at Warwick, and now English and Theatre at Warwick has got back to Starlight. I will never forget either of those things.         

Day 408 - stand before you walk, walk before you run

Today's post is a short one, but here it is, because I don't like reneging on promises.

This blog mainly concerns itself with documenting the progress I make in walking. It is, after all, called Walking by 2013. Nevertheless such a title, and the subjects I have covered here thus far, belie both the depth and breadth of what I have to do to prepare for the big day. My desired goal is indeed to walk and, specifically, to walk to collect my degree - but, in order to walk, I need to be able to stand, to balance. Equally, in order to stand, I need to have strong leg muscles and tendons - particularly quadriceps and hamstrings. My point, here, is that (although I am not at home, and consequently not walking) it doesn't follow that I am not continuing with my training. Far from it - because when I am in my chair, seemingly stationary, my body is in fact constantly moving. So I have learnt to harness this aspect of my disability and use it to my advantage.

A couple of leg jiggles, for instance, actually constitues a pretty good quads workout - as does an increase in the pressure of my foot on its footplate. If I feel my hip-flexors need a bit of a stretch, I lean forward as far as I can go, and then make myself work hard to sit back. These are kind of vertical sit ups or, at least, that's the closest approximation that I can give. I also do the horizontal variety before I sleep.

Of course, none of this is the same as a sustained effort at walking, but it provides a stop-gap - and it makes me feel as though I'm not slacking off, just like these daily blog posts bridge the chasm between now and the videos I'll put up from home. I only hope they're enough to satisfy my readers - but, when coupled with the notion that I expend roughly twice the normal amount of energy on any activity, thanks to my spasticity, I believe they will suffice.

Thanks for sticking around, in any case.    
  

Day 407 - the magic of the interweb

Welcome to the first of the every day posts I promised. Yes, it's late at night, but it's still the day after yesterday. I was determined to keep my word even if it meant staying up until 23.59, and I've made it, however quickly the day has flown by. It's amazing what one can find to while away the time when one has nothing to do, especially with the prevalence of the internet in our contemporary society - and that's what I'm writing about tonight.

Now, as is evidenced by the paucity of publications to this blog, I'm not a major techno-fundi (a South African term, sorry Brits!). I'm hardly ever on Facebook, I have a flip-phone with no internet access, which isn't even manufactured anymore, and my Twitter account was kept fiercely private until it became my main platform for this mission. In fact, I'd quite happily be utterly uncontactable except by letter, so do not by any means consider this post as a homage to the likes of Google...*cough* tax-dodgers *cough*. I am also extremely aware of the threats and dangers posed by our current level of (social)media saturation, such as the increased amounts of cyberbullying and trolling.

All this notwithstanding, my aim tonight is to highlight some of the positive potential of this technological expansion and growth, and the speed at which it is occurring. The thing is, however much of a neo-luddite I might profess myself to be, I owe an awful lot to the presence of technology within my life. If not for sophisticated computers, I couldn't even get around independently, because that's essentially what my wheelchair is driven by. Slightly less fundamentally (though not really, since I've just finished an English and Theatre degree) the online availabilty of academic journals has allowed me to circumvent the fact that I physically can't fit between the shelves of the Warwick library without fear of getting trapped. Perhaps most pertinent to this mission, the internet has allowed me to write this blog, without which I would have been unable to share my story, to raise awareness for Starlight, and to raise funds on my JustGiving page. The latter point brings me back to the end of my last post, where I stated that the updates over the next month would consist partly of gratitude towards those I have yet to mention - because all this focus on technology has been a preamble to just that.

It is possible to leave comments on blogposts, a feature I have come to appreciate immensely, because it has not only provided me with tangible evidence of the support of my readers, but has allowed me to forge new relationships. Some months back I received a comment from an IT consultant named Jonathan Cordwell, who works for a technological business solutions company called CSC. He expressed interest in my story, and it soon transpired that they were looking for a Warwickshire-based charity to support, as a team from the company would be competing in the UK Corporate Games this July - the events of which are to be held at Warwick. So he wanted to collaborate with me on fundraising, and add their efforts to mine!

I was amazed at the generosity of his idea and, consequently, the powers of the internet. We have never met, the company knows nothing more of me than what I post here, but they still wish to donate and support me - a kindness which I am sure I will never truly repay. The games are on 6th July, by which time I will have been kicked out of campus accommodation, and I won't be there in person to express my thanks. So, whilst I have been working with Starlight to create a few little surprises for the team (some of which they may already have received), I wanted to use one of these, my posts in the final month, and offer it as yet another token of my gratitude - to team CSC as a whole, but to Jonathan in particular for getting in touch, those many months ago. I really can't thank you enough - I only wish I could do so face to face but, since the internet brought us together, perhaps it is apt that this is how I now send you my support, and cheer you on at the upcoming games.

Go Team CSC!       

Day 406 - the final countdown (one month to go!)

Eleven days ago I finished my degree. Usually, I don't like odd numbers, so it might have made more sense for me to post yesterday, when it would've been ten days. Today's date, however, marks a very important milestone - so I had to get over my obsession with neatness and write an update. As you can tell from the parentheses in the title, the 'very important milestone' is that which marks today, June 16th, as the beginning of the final month of this mission. To put it more simply: exactly a month from this date, if everything continues to go the way it has been, I will be walking across the stage in the Butterworth Hall to collect my degree.

My primary response to that realisation is wonderment; for once I do believe I might be lost for words. One should never, of course, trust those kind of statements - look at Shakespeare's characters, who say they can't speak and then summarily proceed to waffle on for half a page of blank verse - but, as a theatre student, I think it's my prerogative to take some artistic liberties. Words, after all, are my medium, either as an actress or as an author...but I shall endeavour to put these to good use.

What exactly does 'one month to go' mean? Well, principally, it means that I'm going to try and post an update every day, instead of in the shamefully sporadic manner of which I have recently been guilty - and these updates will consist of a variety of things. As I had a round of botox injections on Friday, my body is noticeably relaxed, which means that I can quite literally step up my training. So, during the part of the month for which I am at home (from the 26th June onwards), I will post video evidence of progress - evidence which has been sadly lacking for some time, as I raced towards other, academic deadlines.

For the next ten days (whilst I am still at uni) there won't be videos, but I have something to offer in their stead. I have repeatedly emphasised how aware I am of the fact that this journey has not been undertaken alone. Far from it - there have been many people, both individuals and groups, who have helped me along the way - and I want to take the opportunity and time that I now have to do proper justice to the impact of those I have not mentioned before. Some of them know, some will be completely unaware - but they all deserve acknowledgement, and I hope to give it to them.

In this vein, I shall also be posting about some of the strategies which have helped me through difficult patches, particularly my stress during exam time. I hope to illustrate in these posts that the lack of activity on this blog did not equate to a deviation from my mission but, on the contrary, that the time I did not spend writing was necessary for other forms of ground work.

Finally, amidst the training videos, the gratitude and the coping mechanisms, there lies a reminder that this project is not all about me and my personal goal. Rather, it is about the potential impact that the achievement of that goal could have on the lives of others. This impact will hopefully be more than just material, in the way that a Starlight wish is more than just what happens on the day, more than the toy or holiday a child receives. If I might be presumptuous, I would hope to show through my mission that, no matter what you're going through, it is possible to make your dreams come true, if only for a flickering moment of joy, like the brightness of the star in the Starlight logo.

The wishes that the charity grant epitomise that sense of possibility, and create precious memories for entire families to cherish - and I am aiming to impact upon that too - which brings me back to the material. Over the last year and a bit, this blog (and all the people who have supported it) has managed to raise £1,755 - 87% of my target amount, £2013. I can't quite believe we've got that far, but we have, a fact for which I will be forever grateful. This means that we have only £258 more to raise to reach that target - and, whilst that still feels like a scarily huge amount, if we've come this far, I think we can do it - just as I think I can walk across the stage. At some point over the next month, like 'The Little Engine That Could', my refrain will morph into 'I know I can' but, for now, the repetition of 'I think I can' is good enough to keep me going - because thoughts are powerful.

So, at the end of this post which marks the beginning of the final countdown, I have a few things to say:

I think I can walk across the stage. I think we can raise the money. I think we can do it together.

Bring on month thirteen of Walkingby2013.

Thank you. 

Day 400 - breathing deep and running free

Five days ago I finished my degree - it hasn't quite sunk in yet, so you'll have to wait a bit for that post - but that's why I've been absent for so long, mired in final exams. Anyway, tonight I have something else on my mind.

A year ago yesterday, I wrote this post for my friend Lauren, when she would have turned twenty - something I wanted to repeat this year. As you will have noticed, though, there wasn't a post yesterday. This wasn't because I didn't have time to write one, despite being busy - I did. It was simply that the coming of her 21st hit me harder than I expected it to, and I couldn't quite see through the tears to write a coherent piece which I felt would do her, and the day, justice. At first I wasn't sure quite why I was so affected but, as I thought about it overnight, I came to comprehend my sadness.

I think, however aware we both might have been about the slim odds that it would be so, we still managed to believe that we could see our future selves celebrating our 21sts together. After all, when you're thirteen and fourteen, twenty one is half your life again. It's dreamland - and dreaming is what you do when reality is too scary to face. So we dreamt...and I guess that, yesterday, the understanding that the reality had finally caught up with me was a little too much to bear...at least in writing.

This post isn't about grief, though. As is my custom, I lit a candle - and, whilst I was watching the flame grow, I had a thought. A thought which has come to me many times before, and which I try to remember, but of which I don't think I've ever fully caught hold. Lauren wouldn't want me to be sad. It sounds so vapid, and looks terribly trite written down, but I think it's true. She'd want me to have fun instead - after all, it was from her that I got my love for Cyndi Lauper, however difficult it is for me to listen to that classic song now that she's not here to hear it with me.

More than that, I like to think she celebrated her day, wherever her very particular bundle of molecules has ended up - and I like to believe that she's kept her promise and is watching each and every step I take along the road towards this rather outlandish goal of mine. Her dad said, all those years ago now, that he hoped she was 'breathing deep and running free' - and I hope, too, that I can remember her saying that the most important thing was 'to be happy' - because it's in Lauren's memory that I'm keeping going, and working towards 'running free' myself.

I hope you're proud, best pal, and I love you. Happy birthday.

A candle for your 21st

 
 

Day 365 - 525,600 minutes...

...how do you measure a year?

I suppose I could just ask the cast and crew of the Music Theatre Warwick production of Rent coming to the Arts Centre very soon, but that'd be too easy, and rather defeat the object of this post, which is that (as you can see from the title)...

...a year ago today I literally took the first steps along the road of this mission.

I can't adequately describe quite how amazing that feels, so I'm not going to try. What I will say, though, is that however fired up I was then, post-botox, I'm not sure I ever really thought I'd hold out this long, let alone be as close to achieving my goal as I feel right now.

So, in celebration of the fact that I am still here, I'd like to measure the year in one simple word - gratitude.

Gratitude for the milestones I've reached and posted about, sometimes leaping over them and other times doing a pretty good imitation of a snail. Gratitude for those I am still to reach, for the fact that they're so near that I could touch them, if only I were brave enough to reach out. Gratitude for those about which you have yet to read, but will be shared when the time is right and free enough for me to do them justice.

Gratitude for the incredible people I've met, some of whom you've heard about, others about whom I am yet to write - but all of whom have supported me in ways for which words will never seem enough. Gratitude for my family, local and global, who have been there since the beginning, not just of this goal and this blog, but of my life. Gratitude for my friends, old, new - eternal! - who have laughed and cried, plodded and sprinted, along with me without me having to ask them to do so.

Gratitude for generosity - the generosity of Starlight, in the part they played to get me here, and the generosity shown by everyone who has donated and helped me to give something back. So very close to the target!

Gratitude for these three years at Warwick. Gratitude for my coursemates, the 'Fam', and for the tutors who have inspired me to work hard - and enjoy it. Gratitude for my helpers, both at home and at uni, who have made my time (and the work) not just possible but wonderful.

...And, of course, gratitude for ability in general - the simple things that can so easily be forgotten. Gratitude that I can breathe. Gratitude that I can see, and speak, and sing, and smile. Gratitude that I can be grateful now because, whether I make it any further or not, this has been a wonderful journey - and one on which I'll never regret setting out.

So, yeah, thanks for coming with me - let's see how much more we've got in us.

And thanks for a wonderful year.