My Journey With Identity Inclusion
Today is exactly six months with Identity Inclusion! Back in January, I got bored with life where all my days were just like the others. Existential questions captured the whole of my life: What’s the purpose of this life? Am I really doing anything meaningful? I postponed moving to Malaysia and decided to stay in Bangladesh for a little longer — losing all the visa application fees and part of the fees I paid to the university.
I found Identity Inclusion quite unexpectedly. I had no idea of social inclusion and had never really thought about the word stigma — deeply. I applied for a selfish reason, hoping I might be able to find something new. Besides, the unknown and expected had always been calling me. I was dying for a different kind of experience, and a single answer that could make my existence totally bearable. I applied and was taken as a volunteer. And, it turned out to be a great experience!
Even for a moment, could you just put your experience in a locker, and think deeply about the billions other experiences that exist? Most of them don’t have the privilege that you have. Many of them are excluded because of who they are. Their disability and struggles became their identity. They can’t do what you do — stuck in a wheelchair, unable to move places because when you designed those places you hadn’t thought about them! Identity Inclusion helped me escape that mental cage that we all are in — that disability is a problem with disabled people. It showed me that the society creates disability only by making it accessible to the “normal” ones.
I am very thankful for these experiences. The experience of supporting a client with schizophrenia: his struggles captured me, shattered me and made all my problems seem irrelevant. It was so gut-wrenching that it took me weeks to get it off my mind. I was taken aback when a 9-year old threw a very well-thought question to us when we visited CRP. And, the last time when I went there, the look on the face of a young guy on a wheelchair when the teacher was describing him to me as, “perfectly normal but non-verbal,” in his insensitive ways. How did he feel about his existence then? What were those helpless eyes trying to tell? Some nights, I see his face light up in the dark. I can only seem to focus on those helpless eyes, and they vanish before my eyes begin to fill…
Sooner or later life will call me for other duties. I have no idea where I am heading. But I am already a transformed person. I will never look at disability like I used to do. I will never look at a person in a wheelchair and feel pity! I will feel ashamed for limiting his opportunities for who he is, robbing his dignity and not giving him the opportunity to thrive. I hope more of you will join the movement and try to do something.
So, back to my question. Have I found out what I have been looking for? No! I tried spirituality and now something different. Somedays, I feel like I am closer to an answer, and other days I begin to question the question — maybe there’s just no purpose? I am not sure where the answer is waiting for me. I will keep exploring and continue my personal journey while gathering experiences like this on my way. But I am so sure I keep working with social inclusion because changing lives feel good.
Thank you Shamsin for creating the platform. I will forever be your fanboy! Learned so much from you. ❤
-M. Yakub Mizan is the Tech Guru and one of our most dedicated Volunteers