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Showing posts from January, 2024

About Me

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Humbly Courageous
Hi, I’m Amy. I live life with a condition called Bethlem Myopathy which is a rare form of Muscular Dystrophy. I like to help others by showing how I live well with a debilitating condition. I was born with this disease, so it’s the only way I know life. I continue to work on embracing myself and using that to help others.

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Captured Thoughts

Hello and welcome to another week at Humbly Courageous. I'm so glad you are here! Warning, this blog post is a bit of a brain dump that probably will seem all over the place. That's just where my mind is this week. Recently, I have heard/read about so many struggles within the disabled community. Not something unusual, but lately it seems more amplified. Whether it's reading someone's blog, or seeing their content on social media, the tone I've seen lately has me thinking...a lot. Tackling the mountain of merging the disabled community with the non-disabled community can feel so overwhelming at times. I can feel like I’m making a difference based on the feedback that maybe I am currently receiving on a good week, and then I read negative comments or hear feedback from another disabled friend and I think, “this is impossible”. It feels heartbreaking that on top of a disability, we still have so much work to do. We keep doing it despite the ugliness and pushback, and

It’s Not Fair!

Hello and welcome to another week at Humbly Courageous. I’m glad you are here.  A common phrase I used growing up was , “it’s not fair”! I’m willing to bet we’ve all used that at one time or another in our lives. I mean it’s true. Life’s not fair. That phrase of course has millions of different meanings to different people.  As a disabled kid, it was hard not to feel that on a daily basis. Seeing other kids so carefree and seemingly without a worry in the world. When we are young, we often don’t understand that struggle isn’t always shown outwardly. In my young mind, I didn’t see anyone else physically struggling like I did, which lead to those feelings of isolation. I often thought, “it’s not fair”, and I wasn’t wrong. Living with a disability it’s a constant battle, physically and mentally. Each day, you run across many things that humble you, frustrate you and often anger you when faced with injustices that those living with disabilities often face, due to the lack of accessibility

Kindness of a Teacher

Hello and welcome to another week at Humbly Courageous. I am so glad you are here!  Middle school… arguably some of the most miserable and tormented years of one’s life. It's a challenging, transitional period of life where so many changes are happening. It's hard to keep up with all the newness coming at you at once. Imagine throwing a disability into the mix. The insecurity was unbearable. If ever there was a time I wanted to be invisible and just disappear, it was then.   It was the first time that I had to manage a timed requirement to make it from one class to the next. I was forced out of the comfort of my elementary school, where my classmates were familiar with my disability, and for the most part, the mocking and being made fun of had stopped. Middle school was a whole new set of kids, which was like starting from square one. Plus, a new building to get familiar with. 6th grade was doable because it was in a more confined area of the school with no stairs. Made it thro

Catastrophic Thinking

Hello and welcome to another week at Humbly Courageous! I hope you have had a good start to the New Year! Ours has been a little rocky. Nothing too major, just lots of little things that have gone wrong. When it rains it pours. Hi, my name is Amy and I’m naturally a catastrophic thinker. It’s a trait about myself that I don’t love, but one that seems deeply embedded into my being. It’s not that I don’t try to automatically look at the bright side. I do try, hard! It’s not that I can’t come around to seeing the ridiculousness of my catastrophic thoughts. It’s just not naturally what comes first.  Having a teenage and young adult son, I spend a lot of time in those catastrophic thoughts. Not good for them or me! Boys are adventurous and daring. They take risks and do…boy stuff. Makes a mom’s heart race for sure.  I came to the realization last week, after having my college son home for break, that I base a lot of these catastrophic thoughts from the viewpoint of someone who lives with a