Sally: Hi Paige! Thanks so much for being here with us. We’ll start with an easy question: Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Paige: My name is Paige Gray, and I am a Senior college student at UNC (University of Northern Colorado). I love horses and I’m taking childcare classes here. I love to hang out with friends and do a lot of fun things on the weekends.
Sally: Very cool. Let’s dive right in. Can you tell us what it is like to be in college and have a disability?
Paige: Sure. Everybody is way different in college, and I don’t concentrate a lot on my disability, because everybody in college will support you whether you have a disability or not. They will treat you like other students, like normal students, and won’t realize that you have a disability. On campus you have a lot of people around you and they don’t notice you have a disability. I personally don’t bring my disability up because I don’t need to. It’s cool, a lot of people are different than we are. And it’s cool that they treat you like a normal student.
Sally: Absolutely! That’s awesome. I loved college for just that reason. So, what would somebody not know about you, in regards to living with a disability?
Paige: Hmm, that’s a good one. Probably it would surprise them, if you go up to them and tell them you have a disability, they would be a bit in shock. Then they will think about it- do I still want to be with this person, or not?
Sally: Totally. You can’t know much about someone just by looking at them.
Paige: Yup- you really can’t know when you look at them. They don’t know you and you don’t know them. It’s a surprise.
Sally: And who doesn’t love surprises? Next question: What do you like about having a disability?
Paige: It’s cool that I have one. I actually did not know that I had a disability or not when I was growing up. And then I was like, oh this is cool, this is awesome, I didn’t know I had a disability. It’s really cool!
Sally: It makes you unique!
Paige: Yes, I do feel unique.
Sally: Okay, let’s finish off with some bonus questions. Who is your favorite TTR staff? I won’t be offended if it isn’t me. It’s Jonah, isn’t it?
Paige: It is hard to choose. I think I would pick Jonah. He is so cool and so fun to be around, and is so funny, too. He is an awesome person.
Sally: I knew it! He is pretty awesome, isn’t he? Almost done. If you could be any animal, what would you be?
Paige: I probably would pick a horse. I love horses.
Sally: For our last and most important question…What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
Paige: I think I’ll go with cookie dough. It’s so good.
