Do I ever wish that I have limbs?

Of course but I know that I don't have arms legs for a reason,

so I'm just gonna live my life as best as I can. I definitely had to push myself mentally to be able

to get to where I am today. There're always people doubting me and I am just trying to live my

life as independent as possible.

I think my biggest baddest moments in my life would be learning how to walk, learning how to

get myself dressed, going up and down the stairs, getting into my wheelchair, taking my own

notes in school and graduating.

Hand-heart syndrome is a birth defect with affects less than one million people here in the United

States. Some of the common signs are a small or undeveloped jaw, missing in fingers or toes, or

no arms and no legs and clearly that is my circumstance right now. I was born without any limbs

(limbs are hands and feet). It also affects the short-term memory and sometimes hearing. Ever

since I was like 15 years old, I told myself that I wanted my goal to be as independent as possible

so I was gonna do whatever it took to become to where I am today. I have nine brothers and four

sisters and I'm the only adopted.

People always say you can't do this. I'm just super grateful that I had my family supporting me

and not doing everything for me. There are so many times when I was younger that I didn't

understand why they wouldn't just do it for me. “I have no arms and legs; please just do it for

me,” I would say. “I don't want to do it,” and they just say, “No, you can do it; you'll figure out a

way”. My mom says that to me all the time. Now the biggest concern as a parent obviously was

how to raise a son with no arms and legs to be independent, how to help him overcome different

challenges and handicaps, and how to help him become independent. This resulted in a lot of

struggles and a lot of tears on both sides. I hated my parents for making me go through all that

hard work but now I look at them and I'm so grateful that they pushed me and encouraged me to
be independent and be the person that they knew that I could be. People come and stare daily

and like non-stop. Everywhere I go, bullying definitely is still an issue, but it's something that I

get to choose on how it affects me and a lot of times I don't let it affect me. There was times

where I would come home completely miserable after that day because of how much I got picked

on.

I pretend to be super big and tough inside, so I don’t tell my parents about what is bothering me.

Lot of times, I'd cry about it. In my younger years, it was hard trying to find real friends because

they felt bad for me or if they just wanted attention from being my friend. When I finally made

friends in high school, I was learning that they didn't care that I didn't have arms legs; they saw

me as a person.

I first started dancing when I was in the seventh grade. I told myself that I wanted to try out for

the talent show. I didn't tell anybody that I was trying out just because I wanted it to be a

surprise. I tried out and I made the audition then I went home and I told my family. I performed

that dance in front of my entire junior high school and I got a standing ovation that was just the

huge eye-opening moment for me. I realized that this is something that I could do that I wanted

to do and if I just push myself I can definitely do it. Now I'm doing benefit concerts and helping

raise money for people with sicknesses.

I've been doing speaking for almost four years now it's pretty crazy with all the places that I've

been able to go to, meet so many amazing people and hear their stories and hear how I've been

able to help them. I usually get questions like “Is your life hard?”or “Do you wish you had

limbs?” and my response would be” “No, my life isn't hard; life is only hard when you make it

hard!”
I'm just like everybody else: I'm bound to have my down days and when it does happen, there's

always a voice in my head saying give up and I have to fight that all the time. It's not about me;

it's about living for other people. I've been able to accomplish so much and I think it's funny

when people ask me if I wish to have prosthetics, and my answer is always “No” because I've

already come so far in my independence without them. I like my body the way it is. I'm proud of

what it's capable of doing.