Julia Blackburn

Apraxia has made me stronger by making me develop perseverance at a young age, not giving up when something doesn’t go how I planned, and always wanting to improve on my speech. I developed perseverance at a young age because I wanted to overcome the challenge of Apraxia and also communicate clearly with my family and friends. Perseverance is a skill that has been important to me because I always want to keep doing something even when it gets challenging. I also want to keep improving my speech because I feel there is always something I can improve on whether I am speaking or singing.

I have also learned valuable lessons from facing the challenge of Apraxia such as never giving up, always be kind to people who have any type of disability, and don’t let your condition define the person that you become. Never giving up is an important lesson that I took away from having Apraxia because each speech and occupational therapy session was a challenge for me, but I knew they were trying to help me get better and help me be able to talk clearly. There would be sessions that were extremely hard and days I didn’t feel like doing the work that I needed to do, but I persevered because I wanted to be able to speak and communicate with other people without struggling to find the right words.

I also learned that you should always be kind to people who have any type of disability because I would see people not be patient with me and it would discourage me. People who have disabilities are still humans and deserve to be treated with kindness just like everyone else. This lesson actually inspired me to become a peer tutor at my high school and work with other students who have a moderate to severe disability.

Living with Apraxia also taught me that my condition doesn’t define the person that I become. I could have easily let Apraxia silence my voice and not speak in public, but instead I made my voice heard by advocating and singing. I knew that my disorder shouldn’t influence the person that I became and I used my voice to participate in activities that I love. This is how Apraxia has made me stronger and the lessons that I have learned from facing the challenge of having Apraxia.

-Julia Blackburn