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Dear Julianna
This is an open letter to the little girl from CNN who her parents say has chosen going to Heaven over the hospital the next time she gets sick. The article is available at: http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/27/health/girl-chooses-heaven-over-hospital-part-2/index.html?sr=fbCNN102715girl-chooses-heaven-over-hospital-part-20342PMStoryLink&linkId=18289967 Dear Julianna, You are beautiful, sweet, funny, witty and a little sarcastic. A lot like me. Also like me you have a form of muscular dystrophy. And also like me, you’re experiencing some of the sometimes not-so-fun things that your disability causes like weakness and having to wear your BiPap A LOT and doing respiratory...
Read MoreFlying with Power
Hello everyone! I’m long overdue for getting this blog going. I guess I was waiting for just the right topic to kickoff things with. Sometimes I might write about accessibility and disability related topics, and other times I might write about business-related topics. For this first blog I decided to write about my favorite thing to do – travel – and more specifically, flying with a power chair. I recently went on vacation (a cruise, which I’ll likely blog about soon) and received numerous questions about flying with a power chair and physical limitations. I’ll start by addressing the first general question I tend to get asked – is it easy? No, it’s not. Being...
Read MoreAlmost October
Hello everyone! It’s hard to believe October is almost here. Where has time gone? October will be a bittersweet month for me, as it marks the end of my two years of service as Ms. Wheelchair Minnesota USA and the start of a new venture for me. It is really hard to put the last two years into words and do it all justice. What an incredible journey it has been! Ms. Wheelchair USA isn’t just a pageant. It’s not about external beauty. It’s not about performing some kind of talent. It’s about having inner beauty and inner talent – the kind that makes you want to prove stereotypes wrong and help make the world a better place. Throughout my...
Read MoreIt was a nurse who
Hi everyone, There’s been a lot of controversy this week following the Miss America pageant and Miss Colorado’s monologue about being a nurse as her talent. I watched the monologue during the preliminaries and personally thought it was great. Unfortunately there’s some others who felt the need to not only criticize her for it, but chose to be absolutely disrespectful towards the nursing profession. The comments about nurses from the ladies on “The View” absolutely disgust me. I felt very compelled to respond to their complete ignorance and below is what I posted on the Facebook page for “The View.” I am not a nurse. I will never...
Read MoreAbundantly excel in life
Hello everyone! I know I haven’t written anything again in awhile. It’s not that I don’t want to. I just need inspiration sometimes. I am not someone who can force myself to just write – and just write about anything. Something has to move me. Just yesterday I was telling myself I really needed to write something but was at a loss as to what… until I decided to do some leisurely reading. I admit, I’m not a big leisure reader. I think that’s because, as an English minor in college, I did A LOT of reading. A LOT. I think it kind of ruined it for me. I go in waves of reading phases and when I do read, I like autobiographies and non-fiction. Although, I did really love “The...
Read More1st Runner Up
JEN ONSUM MS. WHEELCHAIR MINNESOTA USA 2014 RETURNS FROM NATIONAL PAGEANT AS 1ST RUNNER-UP AT MS. WHEELCHAIR USA Jen Onsum, Ms. Wheelchair Minnesota USA 2014, recently returned from Cuyahoga Falls, OH, with the honor of being the 1st Runner-Up at the Ms. Wheelchair USA Pageant. Onsum is also the first recipient of the Dr. Georgi Hudson Smith Knowledge Award. “It’s truly an honor to have come this far,” says Onsum. “While the pageant may be over and my reign will end in October, my mission isn’t over. I will continue to work to influence and spark change in the community and in the lives of others.” “I’m forever grateful for this opportunity and this experience. I have...
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