The privilege of masking…..

Photo by?Ahmed Zayan?on?Unsplash

I first heard about masking last year from Mike Panero, a Tiktok star who has ADHD. He had a video showing him trying to mask his ADHD. I had never heard of masking before, so I asked. Mike replied explaining, “It’s forcing yourself to sit still”. I learned something new that day!!

A bunch of months passed, and I never thought about it again.

Until I joined the Diversability Leadership Collective (DLC). At my 1st DLC event we were discussing disability at work. Most of the other DLC members talked about masking, to make work easier, and how they shouldn’t HAVE to mask.

If you know me personally, you know that my speech is slurred due to my Cerebral Palsy.

That’s when it HIT me. I’ll never have the “luxury”of masking. Ever since, that’s been eating away at me.

Knowing people have the ability to mask, and I don’t, absolutely kills me. Even some people in wheelchairs can mask at least, on the phone, because their speech isn’t affected.

Every damn time you hear me, there’s no denying my slurred speech. I have to spend energy proving my intelligence to everyone I meet. It’s exhausting and tiring.

Unfortunately, my view on myself and my disability is at an all time low…..

Even though masking is bad and no one should have to mask, I’d do anything to be able to mask sometimes…..