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KEY TAKEAWAYS
Though she struggled with balance for years, Brittany Quiroz was stunned when she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in 2019. Brittany knew she could easily spiral into depression.
So she focused on advocacy and connecting with others living with MS instead. One of the hardest things Brittany has dealt with is comparing her old life to her new reality.
But she’s determined to continue to find ways to enjoy what she loves.
And that’s how she gets through life with MS: by keeping a positive attitude, even when it’s really hard. Perception is everything, she says. “If you’re gonna look at all the negative, that’s all you’re going to see.” Instead, Brittany has accepted that MS is the hand she’s been dealt, and she can only change the way she reacts.
“This means that I have to do things a little bit differently,” she says. With a positive outlook, “you are going to be a billion times more successful at finding new adaptive ways of continuing to allow yourself to be you.”
We are determined to not allow our disability to become our identity. We know we have more to offer than a pre generalized stereotype of a blue placard with a white stick figure.
But what if we turned the tables and allowed our identity; who we are to our core, to become how our disability is unveiled?
This marks the point in which we allow our set backs to build us. To be able to embrace what is designed to break us and leave our mark on the world for change.
