I can't wait to go on vacation! It is now my summer break from school and we are planning a big road trip in a few days. We make our road trips annually every summer but this one is special. Our destination is Erie, Pennsylvania. We are having a family reunion, the first after a long, 16-year hiatus!
My immediate family typically goes to Erie at least once a year, and most of our summer vacations have been there. Normally at least one night of our stay consists of a huge get together at someone's house with our extended family, the majority of whom live in Erie. What marks the difference between that and this year's family reunion is that many family members (besides us, of course!) from far outside the Erie city limits will be attending.
Not only that, but it will be held at Camp Sherwin, a old favorite gathering place for our family. Camp Sherwin is a YMCA-owned campsite in the Erie area, and it holds so many memories for me! I have been to the camp almost every Labor Day weekend since I was born, so it's bound to be another great experience. I have so many stories of Camp that I want to blog about, but I promise to make that the topic a future entry.
Next comes part 2 of my vacation: after the family reunion I'm going back to Detroit to visit friends. I have known most of my old pals from Daytwa since I was in diapers and this will be the first time in SIX YEARS that I will have the chance to see any of them! This is going to be awesome and we will be able to have a reunion of our own! I wonder how much they have changed. We've kept in contact with each other via Facebook, but I can't wait so see them in person.
I'll take lots of pictures and blog some more about the trip when I get back, but for now patience is truly a virtue!
Friday, June 18, 2010
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Greeting Mr. Milton
My Giles Milton Collection(Big Chief Elizabeth could not make it to the photo shoot. It is currently on loan to a friend.)
I love to read. It is one of my favorite hobbies. I used to read fiction almost exclusively, but have now switched over to mostly non-fiction. Specifically I like reading popular history. In the past year or so, I discovered this British author named Giles Milton, who specializes in the genre. I have since become practically addicted to his books and they are now my most common choice in reading material.
The first book of his that I read was called Big Chief Elizabeth. It retells the true story of the "lost" colonists of Roanoke. It was non-fiction, but reads like an adventure novel. It was so good that reading it became compulsive for me. I was actually sad by the time I reached the end, so I could tell the book was good enough to re-read. It had me hooked.
After that, I was surprised to find that his later book, Samurai William, was just as good and as readable. I thought to myself, "This guy is GOOD!".
Currently I'm reading another one of his books. As I could tell from its full title, White Gold: the Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and Islam's One Million White Slaves, it is something less than politically correct and definitely history that won't be found in a school textbook. I admire Milton's boldness in that regard. Another thing I like about him is that he can find a virtually forgotten story and successfully make it interesting and fun to read for someone like me who knows little to nothing about the subject matter.
Another one of his works that sounds fascinating is The Riddle and the Knight. It explores the story of one Sir John Mandeville, who claimed to have journeyed across the globe and recounted his story in a rather fantastical memoir. Interestingly, Milton combines Mandeville's story with a modern day travelogue in which he retraces the knight's steps to prove whether or not his story was true. I plan to read that soon.
Milton himself is also a world traveler. As research for his books, he has traveled to the Americas, in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Japan. Being able to experience all those different cultures must be great. WHAT A DREAM JOB!! I bet his trips to foreign countries are what really helps add that sense of realism that plays a large part in what makes his books so great. I would love to meet him someday, he must be such an interesting person. I hope he keeps writing his popular histories, because I'll be sure to keep reading them.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
The Missing Piece
I was born with Cerebral Palsy. Even though it is a mild case, I hate it with a passion. Often I wonder why I have it. Only 2 in a 1000 babies are born with it. I think having CP is the kind of thing that some normal people (at least privately) are thankful happened to someone else other than them. To be fair, can you blame someone for thinking that? Having severe Cerebral Palsy is a living nightmare. Mild CP is not nearly as awful, but I still can't help but ask myself "What did I do wrong that the other 998 babies did right?".
Cerebral Palsy affects motor skills and movement. For me, the right half of my body is the side with CP. The left half functions normally. CP's affects on me include awkward posture and gait, toe walking (which I no longer have to deal with), a strength difference between my right and left sides, and an lessened sense of touch on my right side. I am also left-handed, which I believe is adapted from the weaker right side, which under normal circumstances would have been dominant. I also have epilepsy, although I have not had a seizure in several years.
To control the toe walking, I used to have to wear a leg brace. It covered the area from the middle of my right calf to my toes. The brace was made of hard, translucent plastic and attached to my leg with velcro straps. It forced my leg into a fixed position so that I could not toe walk. It was such a pain to wear. More often than not I would just take it off and walk "naturally". I toe walked up until the 4th grade. I had a heel cord lengthening surgery that has ended the toe walking ever since. The surgery was a significant improvement on my walking, but traces of my Cerebral Palsy still remain.
Harder than accepting that I have CP is the fact that there is no reason for it. I have Cerebral Palsy...but why? I think the lack of a definite answer is like trying to complete a jigsaw puzzle but missing a piece. I won't be able to see the whole picture, but what if I'm not supposed to? Maybe there's a point to me having it. Was my CP something that God gave to me? Why me? Is it a punishment, or does He have something to prove? No one knows...I just can't help being curious.
I hate my Cerebral Palsy, but I don't want to just sit around and whine about how unfair life is (even though that's the truth). My CP could be worse, but I'm still not satisfied with it. During my Freshman year, I decided to prove myself capable of doing everything normal people can. I thought that in order to do that, I would need to challenge myself by going against CP's effect on me, in other words, being athletic. I started with track and working out. I quit track and then tried wrestling next. After two broken collarbones in a calendar year, I decided to sit it out with that, too.
Even though I was not making progress at first, I have made strides with working out in the past year. I took a weightlifting class at school and daily workouts plus help from a friend has put me on the right track to reaching my goal. I am even now starting to see a noticeable difference since last August. I'm not even close to my goal yet, but I am proud of it.
My point with this is that I want to "conquer" my Cerebral Palsy. Even though I will have it forever, maybe I will have succeeded at feeling better about myself, if nothing else. I hope it works.
Cerebral Palsy affects motor skills and movement. For me, the right half of my body is the side with CP. The left half functions normally. CP's affects on me include awkward posture and gait, toe walking (which I no longer have to deal with), a strength difference between my right and left sides, and an lessened sense of touch on my right side. I am also left-handed, which I believe is adapted from the weaker right side, which under normal circumstances would have been dominant. I also have epilepsy, although I have not had a seizure in several years.
To control the toe walking, I used to have to wear a leg brace. It covered the area from the middle of my right calf to my toes. The brace was made of hard, translucent plastic and attached to my leg with velcro straps. It forced my leg into a fixed position so that I could not toe walk. It was such a pain to wear. More often than not I would just take it off and walk "naturally". I toe walked up until the 4th grade. I had a heel cord lengthening surgery that has ended the toe walking ever since. The surgery was a significant improvement on my walking, but traces of my Cerebral Palsy still remain.
Harder than accepting that I have CP is the fact that there is no reason for it. I have Cerebral Palsy...but why? I think the lack of a definite answer is like trying to complete a jigsaw puzzle but missing a piece. I won't be able to see the whole picture, but what if I'm not supposed to? Maybe there's a point to me having it. Was my CP something that God gave to me? Why me? Is it a punishment, or does He have something to prove? No one knows...I just can't help being curious.
I hate my Cerebral Palsy, but I don't want to just sit around and whine about how unfair life is (even though that's the truth). My CP could be worse, but I'm still not satisfied with it. During my Freshman year, I decided to prove myself capable of doing everything normal people can. I thought that in order to do that, I would need to challenge myself by going against CP's effect on me, in other words, being athletic. I started with track and working out. I quit track and then tried wrestling next. After two broken collarbones in a calendar year, I decided to sit it out with that, too.
Even though I was not making progress at first, I have made strides with working out in the past year. I took a weightlifting class at school and daily workouts plus help from a friend has put me on the right track to reaching my goal. I am even now starting to see a noticeable difference since last August. I'm not even close to my goal yet, but I am proud of it.
My point with this is that I want to "conquer" my Cerebral Palsy. Even though I will have it forever, maybe I will have succeeded at feeling better about myself, if nothing else. I hope it works.
Beginnings: the Most Difficult...
My name is Ricky Cross.
I was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1992. I lived in the Detroit area for the first eleven years of my life before my family moved to Franklin, Tennessee in April of 2004. I was born with a mild case of Cerebral Palsy but I'll save that for another blog ( I want to keep my intro short). My first few years in Franklin were difficult, but now I have transitioned to living here and enjoy it. I even have made a few friends since then.
I have just completed my junior year of high school. I make good grades and excel at English and history, rather than math and science. I'm am really excited about college but still don't know where I want to go or what I want to do.
I was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1992. I lived in the Detroit area for the first eleven years of my life before my family moved to Franklin, Tennessee in April of 2004. I was born with a mild case of Cerebral Palsy but I'll save that for another blog ( I want to keep my intro short). My first few years in Franklin were difficult, but now I have transitioned to living here and enjoy it. I even have made a few friends since then.
I have just completed my junior year of high school. I make good grades and excel at English and history, rather than math and science. I'm am really excited about college but still don't know where I want to go or what I want to do.
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