Oh, yes, my parents pushed me harder to socialise and do things than they did my sisters (although if you were to ask them, they'd say I was let off easy). My teachers were rather easy-going about pushing us to excel until the 5th grade, when my teacher then woke up to the fact that a few of us brighter disabled students were going to be mainstreamed and we were woefully unprepared for it. So thus began a two-year effort to bring us up to speed, which I hated at the time, being rather lazy about studying, but later, I was quite grateful. Kat "St. John's University Cerebral Palsy List" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Unfortunately, there wasn't any "bs"-ing. Everything I said I did--I really did. The problem was my selfish attitude. I think it stemmed from some sort of weird reverse self-pity and the need to be the center of attention. I still struggle with it. My self-esteem in high school (like a lot of us) was pretty low, especially when it came to girls. I tried so hard to be anything but me, and, to my shame, I succeeded. I wonder how many disabled kids (both genders) kill themselves trying to be "cool" and the best at whatever they set out to do? When I look back, I see my family as supportive of the things I wanted to accomplish, but I wonder now if they felt like they needed to push me harder than my brother. My parents still think it's neat that I did all this stuff, but I'm not sure they ever think about the cost. Even worse, they probably still think a lot of that over-reaching was worth it. Were your parents that way? Brent sounds like he had a similar background. What's your read, Brent? Bobby? Kat? -----Original Message----- From: Barber, Kenneth L. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Thursday, March 07, 2002 1:30 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: kyle's varied past okay i did follow that with the question of the color of your shoes, to indicate a cirtain amount of bs-ing was going on, butseriously you are right on. don't be too hard on yourself, lots of people never get it, ever! you have gotten it now.