[originally published here on elephant journal.]

The city isn’t built for the disabled. It’s a battleground of staircases and broken handicap buttons forcing those with temporary injuries—or long-term ones—to fight our way to our destinations.

There are a lot of people in the world that I look up to. My parents have been a huge motivating force in my life, and their own accomplishments are ones that I admire. My sisters both are ambitious and successful young women, and so many of my friends in my life are doing great things.