Did I Watch The Winter Paralympics?

Howdy!

First off, I wanted to ask how everyone is on this lovely morning? I hope you all are enjoying or have enjoyed your Monday, hopefully you had a good day overall. We are now in April, and spring is in the air, but just because our calendar says “spring” it doesn’t that the snow will suddenly go away! If you live in an area that has had these experiences in the month of April, you should know better!

I wanted to talk about something today, as you can tell from the banner above, we’re going to be discussing the Winter Paralympics, but before I answer the question, I wanted to ask if you got a chance to watch any of the sporting events? A family friend of mine had some issues finding a channel that was airing it on her television, so she ended up having to use Google Play to see it, but unfortunately they didn’t have closed captions so I don’t think she could really keep up with it as much. As far as I know, she was the only one close to me who showed some interest in it.

I don’t know who thought about scheduling the Paralympic games in March, but it was the worst idea ever! I knew that they were going to be airing the events back in December, but I also knew the Big East conference was going to start up too, and I also had to add in any of the professional basketball games that were on during those two weeks! As those coming weeks got closer, I realized I had to make a decision about whether or not to watch the Paralympics at all.

I didn’t think I would like it as much as the summer games. So I made a last minute decision and didn’t watch more than like ten minutes of both wheelchair curling and sled hockey. After watching all of the basketball games, I just wanted to have time in the afternoon to relax and if I wanted to watch anything, it could be one of my food shows or a Disney movie. Sometimes when I was actually sleeping good during the week, I was literally recording any of my games that came on at 10:30pm, because I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer!

So did you get to watch the Winter Olympics and/or Paralympics? If you did, could you tell me what were some of your favorite highlights? If this was your first time ever watching the Paralympic games, were you ever surprised by a certain event or athlete? 

Mini Soundtrack To The Paralympics In Rio!

I have been working hard on Disability Horizons, creating some interesting articles for the Paralympics since the end of July. However, I wanted to find a way to show my support for the coaches, athletes, and fans of the games on my own blog!

Back in July, Channel 4 released their trailer showing their support for the Paralympic games with including musicians, athletes, just anyone with a disability, doing what we do best: live our lives to the best we can! It is called “We Are The Superheroes” and this produced a thought that I decided to store away in my head for save keeping. Since I am still a music blogger at heart, I knew I had to find a way to bring the two together, just like the commercial. So inside this post, you will find three songs that would motivate any paralympian or any invisible, mental, or physical disability!

Sidenote: I’ve seen quite a bit of different comments within the disabled community in the last month or so. Apparently people in the community, didn’t quite agree with the whole “superhero” outlook of the Paralympian athletes. I think it’s all about perspective, as a disabled person, I found the commercial’s message very motivational. These athletes are like superheroes in the way they’ve trained and accomplished to be where they are now. They will also inspire so many others, kids especially, that they can do anything whether they’re blind, missing a limb and/or in a wheelchair.  

Anyways… here is the mini soundtrack to get all of us into the mood for the next ten days!

Impossible – Lacey Sturm

This is this song that gave me this idea to list songs that remind me of my own story, and for everybody else would feel the same too! The whole song could be written by our grandparents, family friends, teachers, doctors, etc that have witnessed us doing things they never thought we could do in our lives. Just the chorus alone would pump you up into believing you could do anything you set your mind to.

“Every morning I see another miracle / I can’t believe, I’m living the impossible / We are the sign and we are the wonder / Another day of living the impossible.”

Heroes – Alesso featuring Tove Lo

I’ve always believed this song could be more than just a good song on the radio. From the time I first heard it, it gave me this powerful, but calming feeling. And I’m not talking about the bass you feel at the end of the choruses. The whole song is so beautiful! I think using Tove Lo’s soft voice was such a great touch, she doesn’t add crazy vocals, it makes me think of people just whispering the words throughout the day, helping me them through. My favorite part was this section and if I wasn’t afraid of needles, I’d get this part tattooed on the side of my legs.

“Everyday people do everyday things but I can’t be one of them / I know you hear me now, we are a different kind / we can do anything”

Soldiers – Otherwise

This song is gorgeous! Fierce in every way. Even though it was written for our troops fighting in wars, I still think it would be a great song for our paralympians. Especially the veterans that were injured and now they’re on some of these paralympic teams all over the world! It can represent a mass quantity of people at one time, if you allow yourself to hear the words in a different light. That’s the general idea of this whole post. These are just normal songs and I’ve taken their content in a different way!

“In this life there’s no surrender / There’s nothing left for us to do / Find the strength to see this through”

So what do you think of this post? Do you know of any other songs that motivate you to things? 

Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Bloglovin

From Snowboarder To Dancer?

 

Things have a way of creeping up on me. If you’ve read my stuff before you remember me talking about how I found this Victor Borge CD Cover in my papaw’s old stereo system case and after I found out who he was, he was later brought up again when my nana and I were sorting through VCR tapes. Well, I’ve got a similar story to share with you. Back in January, I was on YouTube watching videos and everybody, including myself, hates waiting for the videos to load and we definitely hate the ads that are constantly on there as well. That afternoon when I was waiting for my video to load this very interesting commercial popped up on the screen. For once I actually turned off my music and didn’t even consider pushing the “Skip this ad” button either. The commercial was of P&G: Thank You, Mom and it was about the paralympic snowboarder Amy Purdy. This was my first introduction to this interesting and inspiring woman. She and her mom, talk about how she was infected and how she lost her legs in the process and how all she wanted to do was go back to snowboarding.

When I first watched it, I kind of teared up a bit because it was so inspiring to hear of her story. I didn’t quite understand why I had decided to watch it. I’m usually not interested in watching those types of commercials, because I usually do my ugly cry and thankfully I didn’t. Sometimes I don’t feel a connection to disabled athletes because I was never one in school (Powder Puff Football doesn’t count) and watching everybody play sports including family members hardly had impact on me. When Dancing With The Stars cast was revealed last month. She was in Sochi, Russia competing in the Paralympic Games (which she ended up taking home a bronze medal) during the first couple of weeks of learning her steps for DWTS and her dance partner Derek Hough was right there with her, learning all about her and watching her snowboard down those giant hills! Before the first episode of the new season had aired she had a LONG schedule. She won her medal that Friday before, got on a plane, got home on Sunday and did camera blocking and costume fitting and on Monday had her first run on the dance floor in front of all America to see. If I thought the commercial inspired me, her dancing, sure made me have some hope inside of me that I hadn’t had before. When you watch shows like this, it inspires you to do the same or something similar and for me, I’ve always loved dance. From ballet to hip hop and then the Viennese waltz to the Paso. Just one little problem, I don’t have the ability to stand on my feet and my electric wheelchair doesn’t move as well as a push wheelchair either!

I’m pretty sure everybody can agree when I say this, that when it was revealed that she was to be on the show. The first thought was, oh my god! I hope her feet don’t go flying across the room! During Monday night’s episode, that was one of the worries of their dance. They were doing Swing dancing and I thought that was pretty cool! However, I was concerned about how she would be able to do that, because before watching her dance, I didn’t even know that her prosthetic legs could bend at the knee. So when she started moving her legs all around I was impressed! And thankfully that her legs didn’t go flying off and hit Bruno in the face! It’s a very strange feeling to find a sense of inspiration from somebody who can walk like a normal person but has prosthetic legs too. If we weren’t told that she was missing her legs, we wouldn’t wonder about her legs and it would just be about her dancing completely. However, I like the fact we know because she is inspiration to not only myself but others as well. I have always watched DWTS Monday night and after the show was over, dream about one of the male pro dancers teaching me to dance and before, it just made me sad. Now I’m happy that it actually leaves me with a smile because if a woman like Amy could do it, why should I feel ashamed being able to move my hips around in the comfort of my own room. She and Derek were safe from elimination this week. They haven’t announced what they’ll be dancing next week, but I’m excited to see it and I’ll be ready to vote like always!