Autobiography (for the Dr. Doris Brougham Scholarship)

When I look back at my life, I can hardly believe how many times I have had to literally pick myself up after a bad fall. As a child, my body was weak and fragile because of congenital muscular dystrophy. Although I could walk, I could not run, jump, or ride a bike. I fell down easily if I wasn’t watching my steps, and I needed someone to help me up after a fall.

When I was eight, I had a surgery performed near my right ankle to lengthen a contracting tendon, and that was when I got my first wheelchair, donated by the hospital. After spending two months with my leg in a cast, I was finally free of the cast and the wheelchair. The mischief of my eight-year-old mind, though, got the better of me.

One afternoon, I told my brother to tie a rope around the armrests of the wheelchair and pull me like a carriage up the road in front of our house in Nantou County. He did, but in no time we found out how dangerous our plan was. As my brother pulled me up the hill, my wheelchair suddenly tipped forward and I hit my forehead on the asphalt pavement. I started crying. Mother ran out of the house and pulled me out from between the tangled ropes, all the while scolding us for doing such a foolish thing. That incident, however, did not stop me from my experimentations.

In 1995, my family moved to Singapore because of my father's work as a church minister. By the time I entered secondary school in Singapore, muscular dystrophy had weakened my body so that I spent most of my waking hours in a wheelchair. My classmates in the girls' school took wonderful care of me--pushing me around campus, carrying books for me, and even bringing me to the bathroom. One day, a few weeks after school started, I asked my classmates to let go of my wheelchair on top of the gentle slope by the cafeteria. It was such a thrill! But a teacher saw us and informed our form teacher. During class later that day, the form teacher told us never to do that again. I sighed, and reluctantly agreed.

In those first few years of being confined to a wheelchair, I took a couple more falls before I finally gave up those thrilling rides. In 2000, when I was fourteen years old, I developed severe scoliosis that began affect my heart and lungs. The doctors said that surgery was necessary, but my congenital condition would complicate the process. After extensive research and support from family and friends, I finally had the operation in Loma Linda, California.

The surgery was a success. With two metal rods hooked around my spine, I no longer experienced back pain or breathing problems--and I was done with risky wheelchair tricks. After returning to Taiwan in 2001 and finishing my high school through distance learning, I went to Texas for my freshman year of college. The memories still bring smiles to my face.

Now in my junior year at Fu Jen University, I have grown to be a composed, studious young lady. My classmates and teachers sometimes describe me as being mature beyond my years, but I know better. Maybe I don't rush down slopes in my wheelchair anymore, but beneath the surface still lurks an insatiable desire for all things fun and crazy. After all, I've learnt this over the years: pick yourself up after a fall, and, really, it's going to be okay.