Living with a disability
By: Karen Hulda
Tags: Soccer, My Life, Disability

My name is Karen and I am 16 years old. I live in Denmark but I am from Iceland. I have 4 siblings but it is only my twin sister and I that still lives at home.

When I was about 10 months I was diagnosed with a disability called Cerebral Palsy (CP).

CP is caused by a brain damage that happened during or shortly after birth. It is mostly known in premature kids, and I was born 12 weeks too early.

Because of that, my legs do not work like they are supposed to. It is harder for me to do the most simple things and it takes me longer to learn physical things. For example, I was 12 years old when I learnt how to ride a bike.

Because of the CP my legs get tired faster than “normal” peoples legs. That means that I can’t walk as long as most people. So I have a wheelchair that I use, if we are going somewhere, where I either have to walk a lot or stand for a long time. But I barely use it anymore, because my legs get stronger and stronger all the time.

The Cerebral Palsy can also cause pain in my legs. To release the pain, I have had 3 surgeries in my legs. I have had 2 surgeries where it was just on my right leg, and then I had 1 surgery in both of my legs at the same time.

Besides having CP, I have dealt with a lot of anxiety and depression. The anxiety and depression is probably what affects me most now. I was first diagnosed with anxiety and depression when I was about 10 years old. Back then it was really bad. But now I have learnt how to live with anxiety and depression without letting it take control of my life. It doesn’t mean that it is gone. I am still learning how to handle it, but it is getting way better than it was.

Not letting it stop me

I have never let my disability stop me from doing what I wanted. Of course there have been things that were just impossible for me to do, but I haven’t let that stop me. Just because I am not as good at some things as others doesn’t mean that I’m not good at anything. There are still a lot of things that I can do. I for example play soccer on a club team for kids with CP. Besides being on a club team I am also on an elite team for women with Cerebral Palsy. It kinda works as a national team, because we are going to the world championships in August, for CP teams. We were originally supposed to have been at the world championships in July 2020. But because of COVID it was postponed. Becoming a part of the women’s team has made me believe that there is nothing that you can’t do if you keep working hard.

But I can not take all the credit for how far I have come. My parents, my friends and just my entire family have really helped me to get where I am today, and they have helped me come so far. Especially my parents. They have always helped me feel like I was able to do the same things as my friends. They helped me climb up a tree so I could join my friends. They spent hours outside with me, helping me to learn how to ride a bike, and they listened to me when I was so frustrated about being slower than my friends. And for that I will always be grateful.

Thank you

You might be wondering why I am sharing all of this on an app. And honestly I am not really sure myself. But I have a feeling that sharing what I am going through and sharing my story might just be what I need. I need a way to say and think about life, without being judged, and I feel like this might be the way. And if there is just one person that can get inspired or feel less lonely by reading this, I will be happier than ever.

I always feel like it is hard to share what I feel with the ones around me. Not because they are gonna judge me og make fun of me. I just somehow feel like it is difficult to open up to the ones closest to you. And that might sound weird to some of you, and I get that. I don’t really understand why I think it is hard to open up to my friends and family, and why writing this is easier. But I just feel like it is.

Know if you are still reading, I just wanna say, thank you. Thank you for taking your time to read what I had to say. That really means a lot. If you would like to read more then please follow me, and become a part of my journey.

Again, thank you so much for reading my story. I really appreciate it.