AN EXTRACT FROM ‘GROWING UP DISABLED IN AUSTRALIA’, AN ANTHOLOGY EDITED BY CARLY FINDLAY AND PUBLISHED BY BLACK INC.
As I walked up the stairs from the school canteen, the heaviness of my legs was all-consuming.
It felt like I was trying to lift my knees through liquid cement. All around me, students and teachers bounded up the insurmountable climb, while I kept stopping to cling to the handrail. I was about two-thirds of the way up when I heard laughter. Friends – not my closest friends, but close enough – were discussing my progress from down below. My cheeks burned and I willed the molecules of my body to separate. Separate so that I could simply dissipate into the air around me. At least then I could experience lightness. Just when I thought my mortification was complete, an unfamiliar teacher came up behind me, clapping her hands and
