Pick a Starting Place

I run in foot races. Every race has a starting line. Some can be very ornate with big blown-up arches. If you run the same race year after year, you will find the starting place rarely moves. Everyone gets behind the line until the big “ready, set, go.” The path is well defined with signs, guides, sometimes barriers to direct the flow of all the people. As a runner, you really want good direction; you don’t want to run 5 miles in what was supposed be a three-mile race because you didn’t have good guidance.
Years ago, we said adults with IDD need to get behind the starting line and go through a very deliberate path to independence. Much like grades in school where you must finish 8th to get into 9th, there were prescribed steps. If you want a job, you need to prove yourself in a sheltered workshop. If you wanted to get a place of your own, you needed to be able to cook. The starting lines changed briefly, and for a few years we seemed to let go of some of these requirements, opening up the path to more people. Then we shut it down again.

Years ago, we confined employees to do what they were told and not ask questions or offer suggestions. As workers we were not expected to notice what needed attention, like a horse with blinders attached to a wagon, we were supposed to keep our eyes forward.
These days most of us would not appreciate being asked to wear blinders. We have a bunch of expressions to make that clear…
I don’t want to be pigeonholed
I don’t want to be held back
I want an opportunity to grow

We need to adopt a new habit and re-evaluate the starting lines for everyone. Sure, I would not line up for a marathon without training. Once I have the training though, I don’t want anyone to tell me that I can’t run.
You don’t need to know how to cook to have a place of your own. That rule was an invention; an unnecessary requirement to keep someone from the starting line.

Let’s be careful, deliberate, and intentional about where we start. If we don’t, we are deliberately holding someone back from their best self – their dreams! In our mission we promise to explore, mobilize, and make dreams possible. We cannot break that promise.