Good evening. My name is Tommy Tiedemann and I am 24. I am attending college at Chattahoochee Technical College . I have cerebral palsy which is a condition which is caused by brain damage before or during my birth. I was born here in Marietta and baptized here at St. Ann’s. I went to school in Cobb County and graduated from Wheeler High School in 2005.

A few years from now I plan to be a psychologist. In order to be a psychologist I have to get a bachelors degree. I can’t get my bachelors degree at Chattahoochee Tech so I’m planning on transferring to Edinboro University or Kennesaw State University.  I started college at Edinboro University in 2006. Edinboro is in Pennsylvania and I really wanted to live away from home and Edinboro is one of four colleges in the country that has lots of services that make it easy for a person who has a physical disability to live on campus. I loved the school and I even loved the 84 inches of snow they get every year! The problem was that I did not go to class very often and my counselor suggested that I come back to Georgia and start college for a couple of years from home. Right now I am doing well at Chattahoochee Tech and I am going to transfer to another college soon.

Joy asked me to talk about some of the obstacles I’ve overcome in order to get to where I am at this point in my life. The first obstacle I had to overcome was my disability. From seven months old, I had to have physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy. When I was about three or four I got my first power wheelchair on

Halloween. It was a Hot Wheels chair and my mom’s cousin Elaine came over with her children to see it and go trick or treating. But I accidentally pinned Elaine against my mom’s car with my chair and couldn’t back up to let her go. My mom still tells that story whenever someone says I’m a good driver!

Of course, not all of the obstacles have been physical. Sometimes people’s attitudes and perceptions about me get in the way. Maybe some of you have experienced this, too. You know, like people who see my wheelchair but don’t really see me. Or people who don’t treat you with the dignity that you deserve. A good example is people who talk to my parents instead of directly to me. Like if we’re eating in a restaurant and the waitress asks my mom what I would like for dinner instead of asking me. My mom and dad tend to get mad when people don’t talk directly to me, but even though I don’t get mad, it doesn’t mean this is not an obstacle for me.

This stuff doesn’t really get me down, but I’ve had a lot of encouragement from my parents, my grandparents, my aunt, my teachers, my friends here and at Edinboro, and Mr. McCoy at the Archdiocese disabilities ministry. Other things that give me encouragement are God, Faith and Light*, music, my sense of humor and my prayer group at Chattahoochee Tech.

As I look back on my life so far the most important parts were the Edinboro experience and how it made me grow up and become more mature, the people around me as I grew up, my college career, my faith, and my friends.

I would encourage other young people with disabilities not to lose your strength and to hold on to those things that give you strength and happiness like music and God and family and friends.

Thank you for letting me talk to you today. God bless you.

*Faith and Light is a Catholic ministry that supports persons with with disabilities

• Add New
• Search

Comments (1)

• |70.90.84.xxx |2009-12-10 18:46:17 Patty Stocker
  Tommy-Thanks to you and your mom for this great website. I did have a question about your Edinboro experieince. My son Will who is 19, and currently goes to community college and wants to transfer to a 4 year college to live and finish off.He has Spinal Muscular Atrophy and dependent on all ADL's. We live in Maryland and are considering Edinboro or Wright State. (1) I was wondering why you did not go to class at Edinboro? (2)My son wanted to know more about the social life there for someone in a power wheelchair. He has a high GPA, but studies all the time and does not have much of a social life. He too wants to pursue psychology as a major, but also want to have fun doing it.
  • 0
  • 0

  Reply | Quote

Write comment

Your Contact Details:

Name:

Email: do not notifynotify

Website:

Comment:

Title:

UBBCode:         -color-aquablackbluefuchsiagraygreenlimemaroonnavyolivepurpleredsilvertealwhiteyellow -size-tinysmallmediumlargehuge

Message:

Powered by !JoomlaComment 4.0 beta1

!joomlacomment 4.0 Copyright (C) 2009 Compojoom.com . All rights reserved."