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  30 august, 2012

  Life as a miracle

  Author: Diana Gurtskaya, no comments

  To the opening of the Paralympic Games in London

  
  One day my parents encountered the severe reality when they understood that the vision problem is not a provisional state for them, but a totally different perception of the world where they and their little daughter will have to live. Each person with any physical disabilities has to go through such a moment. If this is a child, then the burden of perception falls upon the child’s family; if an adult person becomes handicapped, he has to go through this psychologically difficult process on his own.
  
  However, I am immensely grateful to my family for their wisdom: they never let me know that I was anyhow different from other children. I was not growing up in any kind of isolation and was not excessively patronized. When the time came for me to go to school, I would arrange it with my friends to come and pick me up, and my mother would be standing on the corner to turn them away from our house and then, later on, tell me, “you were sleeping so soundly that I decided not to wake you up.” But one day, we took a car and went from Abkhazia to Tbilisi. I was so happy; they bought me a lot of toys and then brought me ultimately to school. And this was the end of my childhood, and much earlier than it usually happens with other children, as for the following ten years I was meant to live at a boarding school with vacation and holiday breaks at home which would pass by in just an instant.
  
  When at the beginning of each school year I come to schools for children with physical disabilities, I always find such group of parents who are looking at their first graders with unthinkable anguish. I always tell them that they should be strong, and that today’s hardness is a possibility for their children’s success in the future. However, in my thoughts I go back through the years and understand how hard it is for them now.
  
  What am I telling this for? To let you know you that all those who are defending the country’s honor in London have their own life stories very similar to my own.  Each of them had to overcome his/her and society’s skepticism, conceal tears of disappointment and bear the unbearably sweet pity.
  
  But each of them has managed and achieved more than millions of their “healthy” coevals and proved that anything is possible if you have a dream along with all your limitations.
  
  Olympic and Paralympic Games are more than just sports; this is an idea based on officially accepted principles.  Paralympic principles include Courage, which is necessary for everyday overcoming difficulties and achievement of high results; Equality for everybody and not only Games’ participants; Determination in sports and in life; and Inspiration, as all that is giving feeling of the festivity and understanding of the miracle of life and uniqueness of every day.
  
  I will tell you victory stories and will try to share the unique spirit of the Paralympic London, discuss issues and challenges we are facing as hosts of the next universal Paralympic event, i.e., the Paralympics Sochi-2014.
  
  Russia, go ahead! Towards medals and achievements!

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