While the purpose of my brand is to eliminate the misconceptions around disability, I also understand how you perceive yourself is how you shall be received. That goes for anybody, disabled or not. If you value your looks over the substance behind your looks, you’ll probably be perceived as a sexual object. If I perceived myself as disabled instead of just a 25 year old kid, people would continue to see me as my disability as they usually do before they meet me. This becomes absolutely apparent during some of the most intimate moments I share with people. No, I’m not talking about sex. I’m talking about when people are helping me go to the bathroom.

While asking someone to take off your pants and aim while you fire in the hole – or onto a vacant North Philadelphia lot- or in a random residential outdoor shower along the beach- or wherever – is presumably a big- or at least uncomfotable- ask of people, in my own experience people haven’t thought twice. And although these occurrences may seem trivial and borderline inappropriate, they’re very meaningful to me. In that moment, I know the person helping me out relates to me as a person. They’re not concerned with my disability, and they’re not treating my ask as mission impossible. Everyone can relate to the urge to have to go and how uncomfortable it can be to have to hold it, and maybe that is why most people do not make a big deal out of my request. In turn, by not making a big deal of my limitation, I can feel even more comfortable in my own skin. So, special thanks to all the people who’ve held me down- and up, and over, and out, and sometimes laid me on my back- as I took aim and fired. I know I’m truly lucky to have such great people in my life. And oh yeah- You’re all now certified by military standards to operate a bazooka. Salute!