About Me
My name is Wesley. I was borne and raised in Spokane Washington where I live today. At the age of five, I was in an accident that rendered me paralyzed from the chest down. Since then, I’ve lived as a quadriplegic with enough use left in my arms to do things like control my electric wheelchair, feed myself and use a computer. My physical abilities are very limited beyond simple tasks like these. That being said, the best news is, my brain was not damaged in the accident, a blessing from God that I’m thankful for every single day. Having my brain in tact meant that I was able to attend conventional schools growing up and was eventually accepted into college on the Dean’s List. At the time, I thought that was what I wanted so I went off to major in business management.
By my forth year in college, however, things were not looking good. I knew I would have another year and a half of school left in order to get my business degree (a total of five and a half years) but at the same time, I had grown tired of and frustrated with school. I had lost interest in the standard education system because I felt it was getting me nowhere, nowhere I wanted to be anyway. In fact, it got to the point where I loathed going to classes and spending hours studying for tests because I felt trapped by the whole system.
Because I couldn’t write or type fast enough to keep up with the lectures, I would have to get copies of other people’s notes, often too unintelligible to even bother using. On test days, I would have to schedule to take the tests in the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) office where they would assign a scribe to write my answers for me. For the two quarters I was required to take accounting, everything had to be written by hand so the school had to provide a scribe to write out all my answers on my homework assignments as well. In my mind, conventional schooling was becoming a futile effort because I knew that even if I finished my degree, I would then have to get a regular job some place. Not only did I not want a regular job, I also doubted a company would hire me for a job if I needed them to hire somebody else to do all the writing and paperwork anyway. I felt like I was running into a dead end. It was that forth year I decided to get out of school. I believe it was the right choice but now I need to find something to replace it.
Despite my frustrations with conventional school, I still love to learn and want to spend my time growing and learning with others. You see, from a very young age, I’ve wanted to do something big with my life. I always knew that I could and should be more than just a person in a wheelchair, letting life pass by and waisting my potential. There are so many things I want to see and do, so many things to be a part of and experience. I’ve always had big dreams and have never stopped believing in them. By creating this site, I hope to meet others who share my dreams and want to work with me to make them real no matter how much hard work it will take.
Over the years, I have discovered that groups of people working together towards a common goal can achieve more than one person alone. As a few small examples, with help from others (friends, family and just some great people I have met along the way), I’ve been able to participate in some amazing things already. I’ve been parasailing. I’ve been hoisted up in a sling to take a ride down a zip line. I’ve even been hiked up the side of a mountain on remote trails, being carried in a chair by a bunch of people who just wanted me to go with them. These are things I never imagined I would get to do in my lifetime until they happened. Believe me, it was a breathtaking view looking down from those high cliffs, and it was a glimpse of what is possible when people work as a team.