This is NOT what I expected

[stevenc2]

Hi, nice to finally meet you all.

Total transparency, I've been aware of the devotee community for most of my disabled life and always thought of it to be……well……strange. Please, don't take offence. My error was down to ignorance.

Now that I've taken time to read through threads on your message board, I can see I was wrong so please accept my apologies for any pre-judgement.



Now that we have cleared the air and are friends (I'm postulating your consent), let me introduce myself. My name is Steven, a C2 complete tetraplegic paralysed from the neck down for the last 17yrs. I'm 42, from Scotland, use voice recognition for everything PC related, generally a good guy, an open book, and despite my previous admission to judging this community, very open-minded.



That's the hard part. Right? Now we can get to know each other. Pleased to meet you all.

Edit: I suppose I should also mention due to my high level of injury, I am attached to a ventilator 24/7 to breathe for me. Extremely fortunate it does not impact my speech the way other people on ventilators experience. I can also manage to breathe for a short time, maybe a couple hours, on my own if required.

[Dani]

Hi Steven, welcome to our little corner...
I'm glad you took the time to look through this board a bit and see that we are a good bunch of people. Unfortunately, some PWD never take the time to actually "get to know" or "meet" us and will never know that we are pretty normal people.

[stevenc2]

Hi Dani
I suppose I can't criticise them as I was one for such a long time. That's my bad but very glad i've been proven wrong.
Thanks for the warm welcome.

[anthony]

Waves hi

[stevenc2]

Hey Anthony. Thanks for saying hello

[kro354]

Hey Steven! Welcome to our little corner of cyberspace. Most of us don't bite. I've heard great things about Scotland, hope to visit there some day.

[ichbin]

Hi stevenc2 - I really liked your post and find it great that you read through some threads of this board! I hope you did not have to make bad experiences with creep devs (which do exist as well - from what we've found out so far, mostly men). I recently found out I looooove Scottish music. I even registered for a workshop to learn to play the bagpipe in October

[rebeckers84]

Welcome Steven!
I visited Edinburgh in March and absolutely adored it!!! I will return to Scotland one day and do more exploring outside the city. I ended up being there the day of the big Rugby match in town so I basically just pub hopped with the locals. It was fun!!

[jrm]

Glad you were open minded enough to check us out and form a new opinion. I have visited Scotland, but it was WAY back in 1976, so I don't remember a lot and I'm sure things are a lot different now.

[curiousginger]

Jul 20, 2024 19:22:58 GMT -5 stevenc2 said:

Hi, nice to finally meet you all.

Total transparency, I've been aware of the devotee community for most of my disabled life and always thought of it to be……well……strange. Please, don't take offence. My error was down to ignorance.

Now that I've taken time to read through threads on your message board, I can see I was wrong so please accept my apologies for any pre-judgement.



Now that we have cleared the air and are friends (I'm postulating your consent), let me introduce myself. My name is Steven, a C2 complete tetraplegic paralysed from the neck down for the last 17yrs. I'm 42, from Scotland, use voice recognition for everything PC related, generally a good guy, an open book, and despite my previous admission to judging this community, very open-minded.



That's the hard part. Right? Now we can get to know each other. Pleased to meet you all.

Edit: I suppose I should also mention due to my high level of injury, I am attached to a ventilator 24/7 to breathe for me. Extremely fortunate it does not impact my speech the way other people on ventilators experience. I can also manage to breathe for a short time, maybe a couple hours, on my own if required.

Welcome! Hope you enjoy exploring the boards. Great to see someone else from the UK here 😊

[loveparas]

Hi and welcome!

It always makes me happy to see new members come and see this community as a place that may help change their perception on things. I've learnt with time that its not all a one way road and life makes us take our own time to reach certain places.

I, for example, had lots of trouble getting to terms with my devness, even tho I am still young (soon to be 24) it took me a while to feel comfortable with myself and my devness. It is a lot to put on a teenager that is still growing, "hey you are gay" but also "hey you also like this", it was a mixture of finding myself, accepting and making it part of me. That took some exploring and watching both "creepy people" and also "very mad negative views on devs" all over was not helpful for younger me.

Glad to be on a better place, glad for this space to be here and glad to have you around and all the others that join 😊

[kathy92]

Hello, welcome to the forum

[stevenc2]

Jul 21, 2024 23:22:41 GMT -5 kro354 said:

Hey Steven! Welcome to our little corner of cyberspace. Most of us don't bite. I've heard great things about Scotland, hope to visit there some day.

Very glad to be here and appreciate all the warm welcomes. Of course I am biased but Scotland is most definitely a beautiful country. Hope you get the chance to visit.

[stevenc2]

Jul 22, 2024 4:48:09 GMT -5 ichbin said:

Hi stevenc2 - I really liked your post and find it great that you read through some threads of this board! I hope you did not have to make bad experiences with creep devs (which do exist as well - from what we've found out so far, mostly men). I recently found out I looooove Scottish music. I even registered for a workshop to learn to play the bagpipe in October

Thanks for saying hello and likewise, I'm glad I took the time to give the community another chance.

Yes, I have had bad experiences with creepy devs (and yes, men) so it's been a while since I felt comfortable enough to be 'visible'.

Ooooo, I have heard that bagpipe's are extremely difficult to play. Please let me know how you get on when the time comes. Thanks again for the kind words.

[stevenc2]

Jul 22, 2024 7:02:14 GMT -5 rebeckers84 said:

Welcome Steven!
I visited Edinburgh in March and absolutely adored it!!! I will return to Scotland one day and do more exploring outside the city. I ended up being there the day of the big Rugby match in town so I basically just pub hopped with the locals. It was fun!!

Hey there.

I lived in Edinburgh for many years pre-accident and can understand why tourists love it so much. Not many places in the world have a dramatic setting like the main shopping area being in the shadow of a huge castle. Even as a local, it's breathtaking! The Six Nations tournament in March is brilliant and rugby fans are usually some of the best sport has to offer. Can you remember what match it was?



So many other beautiful places across the country, I really hope you get the chance to explore them someday.



Thanks for the welcome.