Third Anniversary Q and A

1. What is your favorite self-care thing to do?

I’ve honestly slacked on self-care lately but one of the things I love doing is writing in my journal that is on my phone.

2. What are you currently working on?

Encouragement notes keeps me busy at least once a week, and the weeks I go to concerts or play more than once a week. I also am in rehearsals for the Christmas Season at church.

3. Did you have a job as a teenager?

I have never worked for a paycheck, but when I was a teenager when I was in high school,  my friends and I would volunteer for our kid’s summer day camp called Summer Spectacular.  I was the office attendant who would sign the children out at the end of the day.

4. What Kind of Disability do you have?

I have spastic diplegia cerebral palsy and hydrocephalus

5. What are your favorite foods?

Sushi

Mexican

Pasta

6. What made you start your podcast and how did you do it?

I started my podcast because I watched a video by a creator named Gary Vaynerchuk he goes by Gary V on all of his social media. In the video that I watched he said that people were turning their attention from watching a YouTube video to Simply listening to a YouTube video. So h his advice was to start a podcast because people were listening to information more than they were watching it. I started my podcast using an app called anchor which is now called Spotify for podcasters.

7. Do you believe in coincidences?

No, I don’t. I believe that we were all created by God on purpose and for a purpose.

‭Ephesians‬ ‭2:8‭-‬10‬ ‭NIV‬
[8] For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— [9] not by works, so that no one can boast. [10] For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

https://ephesians.bible/ephesians-2-8

8. How do you navigate ableism?

Ableism is the belief that people who do not have a disability or Superior to people who do have a disability. I had to do a lot of self-advocacy in this area starting from when I was very young. I fought for my right to sing as a teenager in my junior high and High School choir. The auditorium was inaccessible during my junior high years, so my parents would come and help me up the steps. But one day seemingly out of the blue my school said that that was no longer possible and my choir director said that’s only way I could participate was to sing from the floor while all my other friends were on stage. So I did some advocacy work in late Junior High and early High School and they told my story to a bunch of people and that led to having a ramp built to the stage from the outside of the school. The excuse that I was given by the adults was that the area that was going to be used for the ramp if it were to be built was that there was a 100-year-old tree in that space and they did not want to kill the tree. But eventually, the tree died and I got my right to sing. Nowadays I navigate ableism simply by speaking up, telling people how you want to be helped and how you don’t want to be helped is super important.

9. How do you feel now and where are you at with accepting your disability?

Now in October 2023, I feel great. Now I know that I have an amazing Community around me of boundless babe sisters who I can lean on whenever I have a problem and I need to vent. And I now see myself as beautiful and confident.

10. How has your Viewpoint changed from when you were little to now?

My viewpoint has greatly changed about myself. I no longer see my disability as something that needs to be fixed. I love the camaraderie of the community and I wouldn’t want to go back for anything.

11. What would you say to your younger self?

I would say that things were going to get better and that eventually I would see real, beautiful, empowering women who look like me and who didn’t live a sad life.

12. I know you love Broadway, what are some of your favorite shows that you identify with the most?

This question can be answered with three musicals. I love Wicked even more now than I did when I was in my twenties because I now identify as a green girl in this stage of my self-acceptance Journey. If you google the disability pride flag you will see that all of the colors correspond to different types of disabilities and cerebral palsy corresponds with green disabilities. Those are sensory disabilities. At this stage of my life, I am so happy and proud to be a green girl and I love the empowerment that Wicked teaches and then I’m learning to have in my own life.

13. What are some of your guilty pleasures?

Coffee and sweets. I’ve been drinking coffee regularly since I was 14 years old. My grandma got me hooked on it. When I would stay at her house, we would drink coffee and have something sweet while watching our novellas.

14. What do you do to take care of your mind body and spirit when you need to rest?

At night I will Journal on my phone and when I’m truly not feeling good I’ll try to take a nap. First and foremost though prayer is a big part of my life.

15. Who do you look up to the most, who is your biggest inspiration?

My first answer to that would be my mom. My mom has done a lot for me growing up and now as an adult. Another woman that I look up to is my pastor’s wife Judy. I met her when I was 4 years old and I first went to the church I go to now. She has been there for me to help me out with problems and she also helps me get on stage when we sing in choir she is a very amazing speaker and watching her teach has taught me a lot.

16. What needs to be done for accessibility in theater spaces, what would you like to see?

This has to be by far my favorite question. I would love to see the world of Broadway take action in making their theater spaces accessible to everybody not only the house spaces but backstage as well. I think that they should consider a staggered shutdown of every theater space in the United States and around the world so that actors who have disabilities as well as other theater people can be hired in the roles they want to take on. Specifically, I would love to see theaters have accessible backstage entrances, accessible dressing rooms and bathrooms with no barrier entrances, no barrier showers bars in the toilet area, and shower chairs. Ultimately I dream of Nessa Rose legitified in the role by being cast with an actual wheelchair user. I think that if Wicked chose to do this it would change the world drastically. Furthermore, I would love to see Elphaba be played by a green girl, someone who has cerebral palsy as discussed in an earlier question. And even furthermore I would love to see roles that are not traditionally cast with people with disabilities to be cast with people with disabilities so that we can get the visibility that others in the disability community need to see. I think my life would have been so different if I were to seen somebody who looked like me on a stage. I would love to see roles that are not traditionally cast with people with disabilities become cast with people with disabilities so that by our example people would see that anything is possible.

17. Do you have a favorite podcast topic?

Encouragement notes was primarily built on reteaching the sermon notes that I learned in church and it has grown to include my viewpoint on disability as well as talking about entertainment such as my favorite singers.

Listen to the most recent episode of my podcast: Celebrating Three Years of Encouragement with a Q&A https://anchor.fm/encouragement-with-marie-/episodes/Celebrating-Three-Years-of-Encouragement-with-a-QA-e2aq9an