Jade Jungwirth
A large group gathered in the sunshine at the Castlemaine Botanic Gardens to celebrate this year’s International Day of People with Disabilities. It was a morning of celebration with local musicians Joe Smith and Benz performing for the crowd as they enjoyed a delicious morning tea of cakes and honey joys.
Between MainFM’s song requests, the beautiful Christine Spicer took to the mike to share an incredibly moving story she had written, titled The Mask, as written below…
“I watched a movie called The Mask. It was a lovely movie and it was based on a true story.
While I was watching it, I had thoughts running through my mind. I felt like him, and the way he was treated, was how I felt I was treated too.
When we go out in the community, people look at us because we look different. We wish we could take our masks off. They think that we are monsters. They think that we cannot do what they can do.
Well, we have news for them. We can show the world that we are no different from them. We can do what they can do, not just because we look funny. It is very hard for us because we have to deal with our disabilities every day of our lives. I think the worst thing is people making fun of us and they do not realise that they are hurting us.
Sometimes I would like to take my mask off but people do not know what is inside us and they are too scared of us.
The worst for us is when we look in the mirror and sometimes we do not like what we see. We try and run away but we know that that is not the answer. Our problems will not go away so we have to face up to it and cope as well as we can and get on with life.
Sometimes when people tease us we have to try to cope with it. That is not easy because we have to be strong and all we want to do is to curl up and die because it gets too much for us.
There is much in life to do and we do not want people saying that we are quitters. We get more into our lives than ever and we are more contented people. We live life to the fullest and enjoy life while we are here on earth. We make the most of life as we can. We do not sit down and feel sorry for ourselves. We get up and go. Life is too short. We make the most of life.
– Christine Spicer
