Did you ever ask yourself what does independence means to you?  Did you ever think about your ability to get into your car to drive down the street to the corner store and pick up a gallon of milk?  Did you ever ponder your ability to make a sandwich?  Did you ever consider having the ability to make a phone call?  It is not my intent to gain sympathy for all the things we cannot do for ourselves.  My intent is to make you, the readers, aware of all the things that our community can do.

I don’t have the ability to control my fingers or my hands to type this article, but I do have a headpointer that allows me to use a computer.  Back when I was going to high school, computers were just coming into classrooms.  My favorite class in high school was music theory.  I wasn’t able to do my music homework independently.  All I had was notation paper, a pencil and with any luck, assistance from a person who had some music theory background.  During those semesters of music theory, I wished that I had the ability to do this homework myself.  All the music theory software programs were archaic and couldn’t serve my needs.  Fast forward five years and music software and computer technology skyrocketed into the 21st century.  I had the ability to compose an entire symphony with horns, strings and any other instruments I wanted to play.  This is what independence means to me.

Independence can be as simple as turning on a light switch.  Some people don’t have the ability to do such a basic task.  When we struggle to do basic tasks, we depend on people to help us.  Our support staff makes it possible for us to do so much; without our support staff, we couldn’t make it through our daily lives.  Independence also means getting out of bed, showering and eating.  When our support staff assists us in figuring out how to do something independently, that can be very valuable.  Sometimes our independence means getting out and visiting family and friends.  Sometimes our independence means getting out into the community and demonstrating that we all serve a purpose in this world.  Our support staff makes it possible for us to do everything we want to in our daily lives.

The next time you are wondering if you job of assisting people in their daily lives is worthwhile, please know, it is.