On Monday I turned 21, had a lovely time, ate lots of food, got a free shot thanks to my birthday badge: all-round good time. Unfortunately however, I woke up the next day to find a huge blister on my right foot. 😦 And for most people, this probably wouldn’t have put much of a downer on their week but in my world, a blister can seriously ruin my life for a while.

This time I didn’t cry or freak out about it when I saw it, I just kept saying ‘it’s okay’, ‘it’s fine’. And it is okay because I know how to deal with it, plus it’s lockdown anyway so it’s not like I’ve got lecture halls to go to or anything. But it’s upsetting and annoying, and I don’t live with my family anymore, so I don’t have anyone close by who actually knows how upsetting and annoying it is.

I guess that that’s part of growing up though, isn’t it? You move out, and you experience things on your own – without that safety blanket.

It’s not like I’m completely new to this; I went travelling for a huge chunk of last year, and am going into my second year at University now. However, I’ve been lucky for a long time with my feet because I’ve not had any big complications. This has largely been due to me looking after myself, and having all the correct things in place to make sure that I’m not caught by surprise. But sh** happens, and it can happen completely out of the blue.

What can add even more stress and annoyance to times like this, is the fact that if I continue to be optimistic around people, that can imply that the situation isn’t a big deal. But I won’t sit and mope about this blister because I don’t want to waste my time like that, and I don’t want people to think of me as someone who whinges all the time. Plus, most have never seen me in a wheelchair or with an infection anyway, so they couldn’t understand if they tried.

Saying this though, last year I remember feeling really frustrated and lonely at times when my new friends didn’t understand my disability. It wasn’t because they weren’t trying to learn about it, or trying to help me out, it was because I know that they need to see it be bad before they can better understand what help I need. But then obviously, I’m not itching for it to get bad enough to show them…

You have to acknowledge that getting to know people properly takes a lot more time than freshers week, or a few months at university. It can be difficult to realise that the people you view as some of your closest friends don’t actually know you that well. But people do their best, and what they don’t know now, they’ll learn after time.