The idea for this blog (and the next few) came to me while I was reading in my bath tub (inspiration portal).
I was reading “We Should All be Millionaires” by Rachel Rodgers. The section that lit my brain was on the history of women and our lack of access to wealth building opportunities.
It occurred to me that not only are women quite impressive for the success garnered from a limited amount of time (and resources), but *I* am impressive because I am deaf and people with disabilities are also on the list of historically blocked opportunities.
This epiphany moved me.
I am inspired and determined to be successful. Simply for the sake of having achieved it.
Quick story: my grandfather's cousin returned to Berlin after WW2. Friends asked why she, a Jewish woman who had lost so much during the Holocaust, had chosen to live in Germany, the author of her misfortunes.
She said “Dafka!”
This is a Hebrew term I will loosely translate (her intention) to mean: “Because, fuck them!”
My current energy has a little dafka to it.
I should not succeed. There is plenty about me that says the opposite (and why I have a chance), but as a stereotype, or a statistic, I’m low on the “best chance to succeed” list.
That makes me ANGRY.
I am going to use this anger to transcend and transform: dafka.
There is ABSOLUTELY NO LOGICAL reason why I shouldn't be successful. It’s my uterus and failed nervous system that our inherited systems point to as a sure-fire predictor for mediocrity.
My "statistical" chances of success are not based on my abilities, but on the failure of the system around me. Our culture, education, and infrastructure are not equipped and cultivated to create successful deaf women.
Don't I know it.
Folks like me with their own adjectives that don't get full cultivated support of the system, they have to figure out a path to success outside mainstream.
This makes us badasses. We don't realize it.
History tells us that women (especially women with a disability AND mental illness AND children) should not succeed, CANNOT succeed, and better find herself a good husband.
At the very least, we should be shocked and amazed when it happens. Newsworthy! Who takes care of the kids?!
I am a deaf millennial descendent of German Jews and mid-west farmers with mental illness and a uterus? And I have two kids?
Damn, not a good formula.
Well, DAFKA.
I got myself a good husband, and I am on my way to be HIS SUGAR MAMA. Thankyouverymuch.
Imma show this world what I can do. On MY terms, MY rules, MY body, MY super skills, MY compassion, MY generosity, MY empathy, MY love of beauty and FREEDOM.
MY whole self is fully and completely qualified to build success.
I am human just like everyone else. I’m also not a millionaire (yet). But I will be.
Because, dafka.
In the next few blogs I’m going to unpack some superpowers that my disabilities and bad statistical odds have given me. (I hope you see yours.)
Why tell this story? Because I want to. The bath tub told me to. I also want to shift the mainstream. I want people like me to see themselves as whole, with no caveats. I want to generate space where we have no reason to feel inferior or odd.
Can you see yourself as a person with superpowers?
I'm going to prove to you that our humanity is not a liability, it’s our superpower.
Then we can go be our full selves, unrestricted. Successfully.
Get dafka with me.
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