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Writing by Jean-Richard James Méhu

Self Advocacy/AmeriCorps
May 2, 2001

Disability awareness for people who are and are not disabled is a difficult definition to define, I think that a person who is disabled is not necessarily handicapped, nor do I feel a person who is handicapped is necessarily disabled.

Being a mentor, as well as a patient advocate and patient representative in AmeriCorps for men and women who have various disabilities is a job that I hope to turn into a career someday. I don’t feel that I am personally disabled at least not physically anyway, I may have some lingering cognitive difficulties, that I feel will clear up or become easier to deal with and will no longer be problematic to me in the future. These ongoing difficulties was a result of being hit in the head with a stone statue repeatedly by someone who I was subletting my apartment from in Park Slope, Brooklyn back in 1997, I think. August 17 was the date, I am not one hundred percent sure of the exact date, unfortunately though. I was injured by someone who I was subletting my apartment from, it is upsetting because I know that the situation could have been a lot worse.

I think that among the two other colleagues that I work with in my AmeriCorps team, I am probably most similar to Diane Shuldham, although I have known Anthony Galantro longer, I think that I am similar in my ways to Dianne, but I think that all three of us have strengths that are of value to AmeriCorps. I think that Dianne keeps us, more focused on what we want to accomplish. She is an asset to both of us I feel. I also like her as a person, which is even better. I miss the way that I was, but I am learning that there is a different me in certain aspects and ways, but on the whole, I am still the same person, every emotion that I had then, I know that I still have now, the only difference is that now, the emotions are a little more hurtful to me than they were. I am still just as determined as I ever was, if not more.

©The National Service Inclusion Project is a cooperative agreement (#01CAM0016) between the Corporation for National and Community Service and the Institute for Community Inclusion at UMass Boston in collaboration with the Association of University Centers on Disabilities.