Speedygonzales21

That's a secret.

That was blunt, but yes I do. some girls are shallow, but for the most part I date just as much as anyone else.

I'm glad you brought societal progress into your question, because I can answer both using that. My childhood was pretty good, I had friends and I was made fun of for disability related things maaaaybe once or twice. There wasn't any intolerance, but there seemed to be an unspoken understanding that talking about it in any way that was empowering or challenging stereotypes made people fairly uncomfortable, and that it wasn't always encouraged, not to mention that for a good portion of my school life I was VERY shy anyway and all of that put together scared me out of talking. This really changed in high school when I joined army JROTC and found a group of people who believed in me and I felt like they really cared. As far as societal progress, I'd say we're VERY slowly making progress. I think that opinions about disability that come from people with disabilities themselves tend to be generally ignored, and that we go between "understanding disability" as a society and not understanding it at all because we don't always listen. All other politics aside, I love president Obama because he has been very vocal about empowerment and disability (his father in law had a disability) and is the first sitting president to make unsolicited statements of support for people with disabilities. It makes me feel like I'm finally understood and not being disregarded..hope I didn't get too far off track there, that's just an example :)

That's totally possible. Spina bifida ranges from barely there to very serious.

Pushing myself to do difficult things isn't really something I or many other people with disabilities give much thought to. Everyone's got challenges whether or not they have a disability, and the fact that mine are unique doesn't make them better or worse. As far as advice goes, I'd say this: you have every right to be proud of yourself AS YOU ARE. There is nothing wrong with you, and you don't need to be changed.