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The night before my flight home for winter break last semester I couldn't sleep. I woke up every two hours thinking I was missing my 6 am alarm. I was so excited because this was the first time I was seeing family since August. I'm the youngest in my family so my parents are now empty nesters. My mom was made to be a mother, she was loaded with compassion and knowledge of how to get through life. Janice means a long awaited gift from God and a perfect addition to your home. That describes her to a tee. Sitting at 5 foot tall and small enough I could pick her up with one arm. I liked to believe I looked just like her, we have the same milk chocolate colored eyes that frame our whole face. For some reason I had asked my friends to pick me up; They seemed more important to see first. As we drove home I was prepared for what the house was going to be like when I got home. Cookies, muffins, bread, and cake were constantly on a rotation in our house, making what sometimes is cold, warm and welcoming. The desserts were not just limited to us, she gave all our neighbors a batch and would bring them to shelters and donation centers. There was a twinkle in her eye every time she makes someone smile with her treats and you could sometimes see the warmth radiate off of her.

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In January of 2024, I was in my FYSE class, and we had a guest speaker who gave us a tour of the different places on the College of Charleston campus that was supposed to make things easier for the disabled to travel. I enjoyed the tour, but it was really cold outside, maybe because I wasn't feeling well that day. But the guest speaker was explaining about the access barriers that many disabled people on campus would face, when they encountered these places here on campus. He explained how expenses was a big con of why the College of Charleston lacks accessibility for the disabled. To sum it all up, the guest speaker was inspiring others to make a change on the College of Charleston campus, to make things more access for people in need of extra help.

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It was sophomore year and everyone was ecstatic to be finally returning back to school after months of isolation and online, even if it was only 2 days a week. I walk into my Asl class, smile under my mask so happy to be back. Mrs brooke’s smiles back but you could only tell her smile by her eyes and smile lines atop her forehead. She starts singing to me and suddenly I realize how much of a barrier these masks put up. Facial expressions and mouth movements are a crucial part of ASL so immediately I am overwhelmed with asking her to repeat and slow down her signs.

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It was the summer of 2019 in June when i began working for a local summer camp as a counselor. Ive worked with a lot of kids at the camp, teaching them my hobbies and passions which include boating, kayaking, and fishing. while i've taught many kids to do these things, there was one young boy who really inspired me to become more of a disability activist. This young boy was on the autism spectrum and had a hard time with communication. Throughout the duration of his time at camp i was able to teach this young boy learned to fish and kayak which was just awesome. It was his first time fishing and by the end of the week he had caught a bunch of fish and learned how to cast a rod. While it took him a while to learn he persevered and managed to learn how! This just shows that no matter if you're a disabled person or not that you can do whatever you put your mind to. He inspired me to teach others and want to get more involved with disability rights and become more of an activist.

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10 years ago on a rainy day before school I walked in to get my cereal. I remember not wanting to wake up that morning ,mornings as a kid were very hard for me. I enter my kitchen and start to hear someone new enter my house. My mom greets the young boy and his mom, she then leaves and we are left with a boy who I had never met. After a few minutes when he realized his mom wasn’t coming back, he began to scream and throw a fit. Not the type I threw as an 8 year old more like he couldn’t control his emotions. Hours later when I had come back from school the boy who I thought was strange at the time was sitting on my couch, more calm than I’d last seen him. That’s the first time I had met someone with a visible disability. I became more comfortable with how to make him comfortable. I no longer thought of him as strange or different. He was just the boy who my mom watched when I went to school and after him came many more little kids and I became glad that they had a place to feel comfortable in a world that was made to make them uncomfortable.

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Despite the Americans With Disabilities Act being passed in 1990 there are still many disability obstacles and barriers to overcome on the College of Charleston campus. Many physical barriers on campus consist of stairs, doors, and sidewalks. These obstacles make it an even larger struggle through day life within the disability community. When there are constant barriers it gives a sense of inequality and demeaning behavior towards the disability community. Some arrangements that could easily be made to campus is adding more ramps to buildings for effortless access. The campus does not accommodate correctly to the Americans With Disabilities Act because there is a very limited range to accessibility. Considering that this campus is where students reside for nine months there should be more accommodating access to buildings.

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My first year as a freshman in Charleston, in 2023 became a portal to an alien world entirely opposite to Myrtle Beach, my hometown in South Carolina. The difference between the two places was big. Throughout my journey being in Charleston, my original perspective on disability has been significantly transformed, and overall changed my original perspective about disability and I discovered a more nuanced understanding of the diverse nature of individuals with disabilities, living in charleston that I have never experienced before. Though pictures I have taken I now look back on how unaccesible some things are. Although charleston is a great place for people to live and go to school at, I think there's an extreme lack of accessibility for people here. Such as the exposed bricks I trip on everyday, and the lack of ramps in the correct places, and the extreme excessive amount of stairs, the lack of unconvetent elevator locations in a building.

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I remember when I first moved down to Myrtle Beach, SC. If I can recall correctly is was late June, early July in 2012. I never was around the beach in Alaska it was all snow and night. When I first arrived in Myrtle Beach my grandma instantly wanted to take my brother and I to the beach; so my brother and I could see the waves. Around sunset, we went to the beach, and I could smell the salty water, and feel the little grains of sand between my toes. My grandma said "Go see the water Violet", so I went towards the water and I dipped my feet in. I loved the feeling of the water brushing up my feet, and washing away all the sand on my feet. My first time being to the beach at 9 years old. Since I never been around the ocean before, I got really dizzy and I'm not sure what caused it but I ended up falling into the water and getting all wet, and sand EVERYWHERE. My grandma thought it was funny; but I was not laughing, I was crying! I will never forget this core memory because I was starting a my new life, and beginning my journey with my family.

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I remember when I was in middle school at a small private school called Glen Urquhart, I would wonder why I had so much trouble in my English classes. I struggled with reading and writing, but I could understand the concept of the stories once I was able to read through it, but that took a while. During this time being called on to read allowed was one of my biggest fears. I was so scared that I would embarrass myself and that all my classmates would think I was stupid. I would re-read all of the paper just incase I was called on, so I would be able to read it just a little bit better. I remember I would be shanking and sweating due to how nervous I was to be called on. At first I believed that I wasn't as smart as the other kids but that was not the case. I have grown to understand how to go through school without as much difficulty and understand myself more. I know when to ask for assistance and how to help myself through assignments.

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Right before the semester began, I took a trip to Disney World with my family and while I was there something that happened that really stuck with me. Although we had a blast, the entire time we were there my parents were constantly complaining about the long lines, sweltering humidity, and the whine of all the small children crying from their strollers around us in the tightly-packed environment. Despite the fact that Disney is recalled as the “most magical place on Earth”, this wasn’t my parent’s idea of a vacation… they would’ve much rather relaxed on a beach. However, they truly don’t understand how easy they had it. Bringing small children to Disney is a lot of work for parents, not to mention very costly. While I was there, I questioned if that was worth it for them. “Are these kids even going to remember this trip?” I pondered what the point was of bringing a baby to an amusement park who cannot even participate in the rides. Towards the end of the day my parents were over it, so they went to eat while my aunt took my sister and I to another park, meaning we needed to use the monorail bus. While boarding, there was a mother in front of us struggling to get her child as well as the heavy stroller he was sitting in up and onto the bus. She grunted and groaned as the bus driver frustratedly eyed her in the mirror. I noticed her struggle and turned to my aunt and said, “I’m not bringing my kids to Disney until they can walk.” My Aunt nodded in agreement, but then immediately goes on to say, “Well, maybe that child has a disability.” I was honestly mortified and meant no harm, but this event is one that changed my way of thinking in everyday life and has trained me to consider things like that before I make an accidental ignorant comment. She told me she was quick to consider this because of her job, and this experience as well as this class has signified to me how important it is that everyone has this aware perspective.

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In 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King advanced the Civil Rights Movement greatly through an appeal to eight Alabama clergymen titled: “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, which bolstered the pieces effect on its audiences sense of ethos and pathos. Dr. King.‘a purpose in writing “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was to promote equality for African Americans throughout the United States of America. Dr. King’s use of rhetoric in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, successfully calls an indifferent American public to action through a successful appeal to the public’s senses of ethos and pathos.

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Mahatma Ghandi, from India, and Adolf Hitler based in Germany, were not friends in the slightest but still Ghandi urged Hitler not to start a war. Ghandi wrote a letter on July 23rd, 1939 to convince Adolf to stop before he destroys humanity. The exigence was urgent because the war was about to begin and the only person who could stop that from happening was Hitler. The targeted audience at first seems limited to only Hitler but if we step away, we could infer that Ghandi wrote it for more than just him. Millions of people have read this letter and most likely Ghandi knew this would happen. The constraint in this rhetorical situation is Hitler. Ghandi probably knew that this letter would do little to nothing but even sending it may give some hope to the people involved.

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In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. was marching around the country to bring awareness to racial injustice. He made a stop in Birmingham, Alabama because it was said to be one of the worst cities in America for racial issues. While he was there, he got arrested and was sent to the Birmingham City Jail. While he was in jail, he saw that he had a group of eight clergymen post an add in the local newspaper. The clergymen recognized what he was trying to do and told him that, yes, they had racial injustice in Birmingham but now wasn't the time to fix it. This letter, Letter from a Birmingham Jail, was he response to the clergymen. MLK wrote about why then was the time to fix those issues and why it was so important to him and his people.

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“You can only be destroyed by believing that you really are what the white world calls a [negroe]”, James Baldwin writes in the opening letter of his book, “The Fire Next Time”. There are various covers of the book, but the black and white photo in which Baldwin is holding a little boy is the one I will be discussing. The letter that starts the book is titled “My Dungeon Shook”. The photo as well as the letter present Baldwin's stance on the grim world he lives in, the grim world which is commonly referred to as ‘60s America. They reflect Baldwin’s advocacy for social change and the socio-economic improvement of life for Black Americans during a time period where racism ran rampant and violence towards black people was as common as a fish in the sea.