Somewhere to Start

Welcome! Congratulations! You have officially stumbled upon and began to read my new blog. My name is Michelle Golden, and I am 25 years old. I'm a college student, and I currently attend Roosevelt University where I am finishing up my senior year as a special education major.

However, I'm not exactly your typical college student. Every single day I cope with a myriad of disabilities, including cerebral palsy, scoliosis, learning disabilities, a moderate hearing loss, and impaired spatial and depth perception. I also struggle with anxiety, depression, and PTSD at times, though thankfully I have them well managed. Despite my challenges, I have been extremely successful at Roosevelt, able to live, work, and attend classes independently. Much of that is due to the incredible support of my friends and family, who have offered me help in so many ways I cannot even begin to list them.

But now, as a second semester senior, I need to begin to look much more closely at my options regarding my future. I have big dreams of teaching students with disabilities, in my own classroom, or perhaps putting what I have learned to use in the field of disability rights/disability advocacy. Working with people with special needs is something I am passionate about, and tirelessly dedicated to. Here on campus, I am lucky enough to have help from a variety of sources, on an almost immediate response basis. I am, however, fully aware that this level of support may not be maintained when I am on my own in the real world. Hence, at the suggestion of a friend, I have begun the often long and complicated process of getting myself a service dog. While the intricate details of how and why I came to my decision to get a service dog is really something I would rather cover in another post, I mention it here briefly so that the purpose of this blog is clear to readers.

This blog will be used as a record of my experiences in working toward partnership with my service dog. It will also help me keep track of important information I find regarding all relevant aspects of working with a service dog. This undertaking is not an easy one, and requires significant research and preparation. Once formally matched with a dog, it will include descriptions of the training we do as a team, as logging the training will help me remember to keep up with it. Finally, as I move into full partnership with a service dog, this blog will serve as a journal or diary that will chronicle much of our time together, as the memories made and lessons learned from this experience will be priceless and incredibly valuable to me.

Now, if I’m going to be completely honest, I can just imagine that many of my readers are wondering why I would choose to make this experience so public. The answer is simple. When I started looking for information related to getting and working with a service dog, I found lots of very specific and detailed information. The one thing I felt was severely lacking (unless I was just looking in the wrong places) were accounts of the personal experiences of service dog teams, which I felt would have given me a much better idea of what to expect now that I was undertaking this, than the cold hard facts many service dog organizations seem to choose to employ to help market their services to the public. I am hoping that by sharing my personal experiences with the general public, I will help to foster increased awareness and acceptance of service dogs and their handlers, and perhaps motivate others with disabilities to consider partnership with a service dog.

Either way, there’s no turning back now, and it’s sure to be an interesting journey. Hang on tight, and enjoy the ride!

 

Michelle