Exploration 4: Empower

My story is about my best friend Kiera who was in a traumatic car accident last October.  Her pelvis was shattered, broken femur, tear near her aorta, broken jaw, severe brain damage, and so much more.  She was in a coma for about a month, but when she woke up she was not there.  She laid in her bed for a long time, and after a couple months she slowly was progressing.  She was starting to be able to communicate with hand signals, writing, and she could see who was in the room.  Then, she started being able to show emotions and then started talking softly, eating, moving her left side slowly, etc.  Today, she is home from rehab, walking with a walker, and going to rehab three times a week.  She cannot walk alone, shower alone, sleep alone, and more.  Her short term memory will never be 100%, and she still suffers difficulty with her eyesight, speaking, movement, and more.  She suffered a very traumatic brain injury, so it is hard to predict her future.  I displayed in my comic the accident happening, her coma, going to rehab, big milestones, hardships, and fun.  When traumatic things like this happen to a girl who is a senior in high school, true friendships start to reveal.  Many of her "best friends" rarely showed their face.  Some days, no one would visit besides her parents.  My sister and I have been best friends with Kiera since Second Grade and knew we had to take an initiative.  We knew she needed us more than ever at that moment, and we did not want her to go a day without a visitor or fun.  My sister and I went every day to visit Kiera.  We were there for her to relax and have fun but also to help her progress.  The doctors and therapists wanted us to work on things with her during her everyday activities such as her short term memory, or using her left hand.  Kiera needed more than just her parents and siblings, and she needed to still feel like a teenager during all of this.  We are still there for her and talk to her every single day, and seeing her is what I look forward to most when I go home.  Kiera will be going back to high school next semester to take one class, and she is afraid she is going to be the freak or odd-one-out.  I remind her all of the time that everyone has their own issues, and she is not the only person with challenges.  She just does things in a different way, but many people do.  She is not bounded by her disability.  Kiera will make friends at school, live a great and happy life, and not have the disability define her.

In, "Code of Freaks", all of the disability stereotypes were displayed.  Disabled people are represented as monsters and incapable of living on their own.  The clips of those movies are the opposite of what my comic demonstrates.  The comic demonstrates the everyday struggle of someone with disabilities, friendship, normality.  I did not make my friend the hero, she did not die, she did not teach me an inspiring message to help live my life better.  This is an accurate situation because I showed a brief version of what my friend has been going through.

I thought the video, "Who Is Perfect," was very moving.  The art pieces clearly conveyed the different body types shopping for the same clothes.  Mannequins always have perfect and thin bodies when in reality there is a small percentage of the world who looks like that.  My friend Kiera still wears the same clothes she did before the accident.  Some clothes she cannot because she struggles putting on my complicated shirts, dresses, etc.  Her body type shifted when the accident happened.  She gained weight because she was laying in a bed for months, and she had a bigger stomach because of her feeding tube.  She has a lot of scars that she tries to cover up.  I went shopping with her for her graduation dress at the end of last year, and people would stare in the store at her walking slowly with a therapist around a store.  I saw this video and thought of my friend Kiera because she is someone who is forgotten in the world of clothing but looks incredible no matter what she wears.  She was considered different than everyone in the store but, but she was buying the same clothes.  I always remind her that there is no definition of perfect or normal.  Everyone has their own challenges, insecurities, and no one is the same.  I always treat Kiera as normal as everyone else because her disability does not make her less perfect or normal.  Perfection and normality do not exist.

"Don't Look Down on Me," really spoke to me in a variety of ways.  I thought the ending was great because he made me think of not just my friend Kiera, but everyone who suffers from being looked at as different.  I was always a part of my friends day that she looked forward to.  We would come see her, and sometimes we would get to see her walk and she was so excited to show us.  My sister and I would just talk to her about how she is feeling and about normal teenager stuff.  We would watch her favorite shows and movies, color, play poker, and just nonstop laugh.  She could count on us to be there for her, and to not treat her differently.  So many people would be afraid to visit her, and some of her closest friends rarely made an appearance in the rehab center.  Since she was so different, they did not know how to handle the situation, and they did not know what to do with her.  I understand this was a very emotional experience too to have to see a friend in such a difficult state.  My friend Kiera though feels sometimes she is devalued, and given more attention because of her disabilities now, and she does not want that.  She always wants the doctors and therapists to listen to her opinions, and she wants to still have a voice this world.  Kiera always texts my twin sister and I while we are at school about things she is going through and what is making her upset because we will always listen and want her to know she is not alone.

References Cited

"Code of the Freaks (work-in-progress)." Vimeo. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2015.

Krupnick, Ellie. "'Disabled' Mannequins Remind Us That Beautiful Doesn't Mean 'Perfect' (VIDEO)." The

Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 03 Dec. 2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2015.

Novick, Jonathan. "Don't Look Down on Me." YouTube. YouTube, 07 Aug. 2014. Web. 18 Nov. 2015.