Overcoming Disability Challenges and Embracing Strength
Speaking on the theme Against All Odds at Speaker Slam® in Toronto on Apr 25, 2023, Tara Geraghty-Ellis took the stage with a five minute story.
Transcript
foreign being all alone and knowing that my father didn't want me those were all the things that I had to struggle with and contend with and it took me a really long time to make any sense of it 19 years to be exact I had so much that I was dealing with throughout my life I was living at home in a very violent environment and school was no better I was beaten up I was beaten up at home and at school verbally physically mentally emotionally and I was called stupid a loner useless a slow learner special needs and that was through High School needless to
say I didn't have a good time of it starting off nobody was really there for me except my mom she made sure that I had every Advantage she even made sure that I went to the best high school and I made the best of it that was right up until I almost graduated high school my graduating year I was sitting in my English class and the following happened Tara Garrity Tara garity please come to the guidance office Tara please have a seat Tara what are your plans for after high school I'm going to go to University of course I don't think that would be a
good idea why not all of my other friends are going yeah but your special needs what does that mean well we accommodated all of your needs here at high school but after high school it's a whole different game and universities just going to be too challenging you should consider College but but no butts just go and look at the colleges and tell us which one you want and I was walked out I took a few to tell you the truth minutes to consider colleges and then I applied to universities so I applied and then my friends all got their acceptance letters and I didn't and
I was I went to the guidance office and I asked what happened to my acceptance letter I was told you had decided not to go to university your guidance counselor shredded your University applications well that wasn't gonna be the end I needed to prove that I could do I needed to prove that I could Thrive I want people to realize that people who have physical and mental illnesses are not throwaways and I know a lot of people are going to say nobody thinks that but I know otherwise from my own lived experience and from my daily work with people I know that a lot of
people feel like the world doesn't value them and we have to do better finding a place where these people can feel valued and people are working hard enough just to get from Monday to Tuesday and we need doors opened we need compassion we need people to not stigmatize not label and just look at people for who they are not their problems and look at mental illness and physical illness the same way you would look at anything else without the stigma involved
Transcript generated from the recording and lightly cleaned. Some names and wording may differ from the spoken speech.