Driving is a Priviledge

I was born developmentally/cognitive delayed which was caused by a diminutive pituitary gland, short corpus callosum, and delayed myelination in my brain as determined by an MRI when I was two years old.

Because of my delay, my mom did not want me driving when I was 15 ½ to get my temps. She said I needed a little more maturity and I had to prove I could be responsible. So a year later we started working on studying the driver’s manual for the State of Ohio and I tried again to again to get my temps. But I was unsuccessful. Thankfully, I was connected with a great organization called Capabilities. Through Capabilities I was able to work with a driver’s counselor who helped me understand the questions asked during the temp test and guess what, after a year of trying to pass the temporary driver’s test, I passed the test and I received my temps!! What a moment. After getting my temps, I attended my teen driver’s education course with other cognitive delayed students. After passing my final test, it was onto driving. I love driving and am so grateful for my driving instructors. Once I passed the driver’s portion it was on to the big final test. I got my driver’s license last year and have now been driving for a year!! When I am in the car, I always set my GPS before I leave to make sure I get to where I need to go.

My entire career at school has been as a “special education” student. I attended a preschool for developmental delayed students and got to ride a bus to school. I thought it was great that I could ride a bus when my older brother had to walk to school. He was so jealous!

Once I was in elementary school, I started in a resource room for most of the day, but I still had a homeroom, went to recess, and made some great friends. Once I was in fourth grade, I could attend “regular” math class with some help. I never really noticed I was that different until I was in middle school. One of my friends asked why I had to go to that “special” classroom? Then it hit me, I am different and learn different from my friends.

I believe that driver’s education is important in reducing the number of deaths because with taking that class, a driver simply doesn’t know what laws are active and who has the right of way. I would not be driving if it were not for my driver’s education class. I took my driver’s education class through zoom meetings during Covid, I almost think that helped me more because I could pay attention instead of getting distracted by the other students drivers.

I live in Ohio, and one way my state has tried to reduce the number of deaths related to driving is passing a no cell phone use while driving law. Too many times I have seen driver’s talking on their phone or worse looking at their phone while driving.

So, you ask yourself, why would someone who is intellectually disabled need a college scholarship? Well, even though I have an intellectual disability, I like to call myself differently abled. I have been accepted to The Ohio State University through their Transitions Options in Postsecondary Settings (“TOPS”) Program. The TOPS program is a Comprehensive Transition and Postsecondary program whose purpose is to develop, expand and improve inclusive higher education options for people with intellectual disabilities such as myself. Once I am certified through the TOPS program, I plan on working towards obtaining a bachelor’s degree. My ultimate goal is to earn a degree in the field of recreational sports management. With my degree I hope to help other kids and adults like me either through working with my local county Board of Developmental Delay or working with a sports team in their facility.

Sometime personal about me is I love soccer and one life experience I will never forget was my determination to make the varsity soccer team at my high school during my senior year last year. For a little background information, I went to a large high school with over 1,400 students. There is a lot of competition to make the sports team. I really wanted to make the varsity soccer team in my senior year of high school. I had to compete with 17 other seniors and 40 underclassmen for a roster that could only take 23 players. Knowing this, I showed up to every event the program scheduled and spent time on my own every single day putting more work in, be it sprints, ball work, running, lifting weights, you name it! My dedication and hard work paid off as I was able to make the team this past fall. On our senior night, in recognition of my hard work, the captains of the team let me run through first and break the mascot sign. It is a memory I will never forget. I never want to have that “what if’ feeling or I could’ve done this or that

One of my goals as I get older is to fight against ableism. Ableism is discriminating against someone because of their disability, which can take many forms. Ableism can also be bullying, isolation, or refusal to provide a student with disability accommodations. I have experienced ableism during my time in school. Combating ableism is a difficult thing that people with disabilities do literally every day. I hope with my career path I can help fight ableism for people with disabilities.

I hope to become an inspirational success story for other students who are intellectually disabled. I hope they can learn from my experience in knowing that any student in special education can attend college.