April 2022 Edition of Inside Equal Access

A NOTE FROM THE EDITORS: FINISHING SPRING 2022 WELL

We’re just gonna lay it out there, folks. It’s that time of year (semester). Literally everyone is having a rough time. Your inbox is the electronic equivalent of a dumpster fire. You tore out all the April and May pages in your agenda so that you can stay in denial. You’re not sleeping enough, exercising enough, or eating healthy enough. 

And it’s not just that it’s the end of the semester. It’s not just that spring break was SO DARNED LATE. It’s global wars, it’s won’t-go-away COVID, it’s political unrest. We need to be aware that all of these things take up room in our psyches' holding tanks. And when we’re “running on full” all the time, the littlest tough thing can send everything spilling out. 

But here’s the good news: the littlest GOOD thing does the opposite. It can clear out some room. It lowers the temperature, keeps us from boiling over, and motivates us to believe in ourselves and even pass that goodness along. 

We talk about capacity a lot in disability discussions. Conditions severe enough to warrant federally protected status aren’t just “hard”. Every day, a person with disabilities wakes up with a lot of that mental holding tank already taken. Because coping takes energy. Functioning takes energy. Trying to understand a world created for typical people takes energy. There isn’t a lot left for patience, perseverance, and goal setting. Every day is marked with elements of plain old survival. 

This time of the semester, we ALL experience that. We all can know how it feels. Be kind to yourself. Be kind to others. Be flexible. Be patient. Life is a marathon not a sprint. And sometimes that cup of water someone hands you at mile twenty is just what you need to keep going.