About a month ago I broke my ankle playing ultimate. I’ve been hopping around on crutches, trying to manage everything without the added benefit of stability and balance. It has been an interesting experience, trying to rebuild the daily necessities of life around my new handicap. Everything from simply sitting down to dressing, showering, cooking… and then the larger parts of life, like interacting with people and getting to class.

I now have an enormous amount of sympathy and understanding for other people with disabilities. It’s actually a great bonding experience, to hop down the street and exchange collegial nods with people on crutches, in casts, or just limping. Even people without obvious issues like to tell me how they’ve broken their pelvic bone, or mushed a toe when they were six. A surprisingly large number of you people have been injured.

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