Surprise call

Last night just before 10:30, my cell rang. It was my friend Suzanne from San Diego. She'd been thinking about me, she said, and since it was almost the 4th she decided to call and see if I'd gotten any sparklers.

Suz is another MD camp friend I've known since we were little kids. As teenagers, she would have 4th of July parties at her house for a weekend. Her folks would go on vacation, taking the two youngest of the six kids with them, then a few of us camp people would hang with Suz and Jay (and sometimes Sandy) and have a great time. We had a blast making our own soap operas and talk shows, complete with commercials, using their folks' video camera. One year, Jay bought sparklers that turned three different colors and made a BIG deal out of it, and it's been a 4th tradition ever since:

Person 1: Did you get any sparklers this year?

Person 2: Yeah, and they turn THREE DIFFERENT COLORS!!!

It's always wonderful to talk with Suz -- she's one of my dearest childhood friends and I admire her more than I can say -- and one of these days I'm going to figure out why we go so long between conversations. Last night we mostly shared about our various doctoral woes and fears (she's getting an education doctorate). She also told me about a program with which she's involved -- adults with disabilities mentoring kids with disabilities. The program received a five year grant and is the only one of its kind in the country (there are mentoring programs for gimp kids, but not where the mentors are also gimps). It's one of those things that makes total sense on a logical and practical level, so you gotta wonder why no one's done it before. Last Summer there were only five kids in the program, but this year there are 21. It sounds like an incredible deal, and I'd love to see one started in other places. I'm going to talk to her more about it after they have their workshop this weekend and find out what all they do. I told her I'd love to see one started in NOLA, and she thought it was a good idea as well.

Suz and my Sacramento-friend Kim (also from MD camp days) and Nay are my gimp heroes. Whenever I start feeling discouraged, I know I can vent my frustrations to them and they'll understand. They usually also help me figure out ways to deal with the frustration. Suz was the one who woke me up to "gimp culture" -- it's another one of those things that makes sense when she said it to me, but I'd never really thought about it before. We have our own language (which some ABs can become privy to after secret initiations -- ::winks at Anita, Jonikka, and Kevin::), our own support systems, our unique problem sets. Suz was telling me about it a while back when she was attending a workshop in Chicago, and it seemed so obvious after she described it. Duh!

I think that's why I'd like to see some sort of mentoring program started in NOLA, or at least something where we gimps can meet each other. I know I'm not the only one in the city down there, but I'm not exaggerating when I say I can go MONTHS without seeing another one so that it FEELS like I'm the only one. Not that I don't think there are ABs who can sympathize with my gimp struggles (of course there are), but just like a black person sometimes needs another black person to vent to or athletes hang out with athletes, so too do gimps need other gimps. I firmly believe that without MD camp and the people I met there growing up, I don't think I would have ever even THOUGHT about applying to a PhD program out of state let alone have actually moved. Kids especially need to know that their options are not limited, that adaptations can be made to help them.

I'm seriously going to look into doing something when I get back to NOLA.

Thanks for the idea, Suz -- and thanks for being one of my inspirations.