A few days ago, a post on the De La Salle University-Manila Secret Files sparked outrage among advocates of the PWD sector. I don't usually broadcast my thoughts on issues like this but I realized that that is just one more way of propagating the ignorance that permeate society. After all, ignorance breeds more ignorance. What good would keeping my mouth shut do?

I'd be a poor excuse for an occupational therapist if I don't do ANYTHING about it. Every time we introduce our profession, we always say that one of our goals as occupational therapists is to "help people go back to doing the activities that are meaningful to them." Doing so entails so much more than having therapy sessions a few times a week. In the greater scheme of things, if we truly want to enable PWDs, advocacy is the way to go. 

Anyway, here's the infamous post if you haven't read it yet (or in case it gets taken down):

Allow me to say my piece:

Unbelievable. Whoever posted this should get their head checked (and everybody else who thought this was a stroke of pure genius). 

No wonder the PWD sector remains as it is. Opportunists like them, those who take advantage of other people's circumstances to get ahead, do not deserve respect. So you stand in line in ages, poor you. Imagine what standing in the same line means for a person who actually has a limitation. You think you're so smart, so ingenious for coming up with this LIFE HACK? Do you really think you should be lauded and admired for this? Ask someone with a disability what they think of your great idea. 

And to think you're just a few months away from graduating? Wow. Just wow.

As someone who aspires to become part of the rehab profession, it is disheartening to encounter people like these who would deliberately go out of their way to further incapacitate those who already have a hard enough time as it is. Every day in our profession, we struggle to provide for PWDs the kind of life they deserve, the right to a life that is as meaningful as the rest of ours. For every step we take in the right direction, these instances set us two steps back. 

And those who keep encouraging ideas like these? FOR SHAME. Condoning this kind of behavior is one thing, but encouraging others to do the same? That’s a whole new kind of low I wouldn’t expect from a school of your caliber. My brother goes to DLSU-Manila and I always thought people who go there learn at least a thing or two about common decency. I stand corrected (well, at least about these people. I do not believe all Lasallians act this way. I shudder to think if that’s the case.).

And to the person who commented that the negative comments are from UP-Manila PT students, don't you think any DECENT human being for that matter would see the injustice in this whole picture? You don't have to be a PT or an OT to think this kind of behavior is nothing more than one privileged non-disabled person capitalizing on the benefits of a PWD.

If you think having a disability entitles you to a perk, I sincerely hope for your sake that you don’t actually become lame or blind or deaf or whatever. God forbid a bastard with a fake limp steal your spot on the MRT/LRT. 

Where would be the justice in that, right?

I don’t want to go to med school anymore. In fact, I don’t even know if I ever did really want to become a doctor in the first place.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

All throughout my life, people have always answered that question for me. No one ever really bothered to consider the fact that I may have my own ideas about what I want to do with my life. The people around me have always seen themselves as my self-appointed spokespersons. They never did speak for me. Every time that question was asked, before I had the chance to pipe up, voices clamor one over the other to determine my fate; a guillotine falling long before I was even called to the stands. 

Naïveté took the best of me. Not knowing any better, I proceeded to go along whatever they wanted for me. But I ask, was it really for my sake… or was it more of an act to make a point? To prove that the humble Rabaccas of Lumban, Laguna were more than a bunch of rice farmers and mountain people. I see their point. My parents and grandparents have more than paved the way to ensure the future for us, their children. They are all professionals now. What’s wrong with that, right? But now I ask, why do they need me to become a doctor? They were given a choice to pave their own paths, why can’t I? Don’t dare tell me it's because they want what’s best for me. I’d be the judge of that, thank you very much.

There are so much more opportunities for career success aside from the path of medicine. Why can’t they understand that? I’m so damn tired of keeping up pretenses. This is the first, and probably the last, time that I’d lay myself bare.

I’ve always had a knack for the arts. The humanities intrigue me and the art of rhetoric, as well. But the best part about it is that I seem to have the aptitude for both. I never did get a chance to explore those options. My fate was chosen for me before I even knew what was happening. I didn’t know any better. I took the path they had laid out for me. 

I am now in the health sciences, on my way to becoming an Occupational Therapy to be exact. And I admit that it has grown on me. I’ve grown to love this profession, and now that I’ve wrapped my head around the possibility of actually finding happiness in the rehabilitation sciences, they dare take this away from me.

I am no longer the puppet they can string along. I am legally an adult and I have chosen my lot in life. I want to be an occupational therapist. And what pisses me off the most is how much they diss my chosen profession in a pathetic attempt to steer me towards medicine. 

To you, bitch: Masahista, my ass. You don’t know a thing about the things we do as therapists. You cannot judge the worth of a profession by the size of the paycheck. Shows how much you know, bitch. You crossed the line and I’m not going to stand idly by and let you step on me all over again. I’ve had enough of being stepped on. I’ve had enough of playing by your rules. No more. Diss my course, and you mess with the wrong people. You don’t know how much hard work we put in, how much blood, sweat, and tears we shed and to what end? To become some glorified masseuse? You wish. You want me to get not only my bachelor’s degree but also my MD degree from UP? You have no idea what you’re asking. I’m flattered you think so highly of me but that’s about it. You don’t know what we Iskos and Iskas go through each day, struggling for that elusive diploma. So, cut me some slack, goddammit. And I sure as hell am not going to let you diss what I’ve worked so hard for just because your narrow, ignorant mind cannot grasp what it means to be a student in the UNIVERSITY OF THE butterflyin' PHILIPPINES. 

“I’m making all my own plans, throwing all my old ones away. I gotta grow up be someone, draw a map, find a path, take a breath, and run.” (And Run, by He is We)

I’m running away. Metaphorically. But unless the people I care about manage to wrap their narrow minds around the fact that I have my own life to live, I might just take that literally.

It’s high time I stood up for myself. It’s high time I chose to do what is right for me. Not what THEYthink is right for me… to choose not what makes them happy, but what makes ME happy. I deserve that, at least. I’m not gonna settle for anything less than what I deserve anymore. It’s my life to live, after all.