Two Year Anniversary of DiTW

This blog short originally appeared on Instagram. Follow me at @disabledinthewild7

Amy smiles proudly with her forearm crutches as she stands on top of a mountain, overlooking the green grassy meadow and mountains in the distance on a bright sunny day.

Happy 2 year anniversary to Disabled in the Wild!

I started this account on January 22, 2022 after growing tired of witnessing people treat immunocompromised folks like our lives don't matter, and I needed an outlet to start using my voice and advocating for chronically ill and disabled people. I also wanted to make sure it would be something I could sustain long-term and would be appealing to non-disabled people as well, so I decided to include my love of the outdoors, and that's how Disabled in the Wild was created!

This account started as a place for me to be an advocate and to share my outdoor adventures, but it became so much more. I found this amazing community that gave me a place to belong, and honestly helped me heal from a lot of interpersonal trauma. It gave me the opportunity to learn from others, support others, and to build friendships; it became a place for me to explore what disability is and what disability means to me, both good and bad; it helped me to become comfortable in my own skin and come into my own as a disabled person. It also helped me realize how passionate I am about this kind of advocacy work, and that it's something I wish to continue pursuing in the future.

When I started this account, I was doing the best health-wise that I had been doing in 7+ years. I had the energy to post on Instagram daily, interact with a lot of people, write in-depth blog posts, and create long YouTube videos. But then my health began to decline, and my online activity declined along with it. Currently, my health is in a bad place and I’m struggling to create new content. That's been a tough pill for me to swallow as I continue to tend to my very sick body and wait for future healing. I have a long list of projects to start working on once I am able to and I can't wait to get back into it, but in the meantime, I’m trying to find a balance between taking care of myself, taking advantage of the opportunities for advocacy that come my way, and continuing my work through Disabled in the Wild.

So, I'm on slow mode right now- creating content on Crip Time- but I'm not going anywhere anytime soon and I have high hopes and big dreams for the future. Thank you to everyone for being here and for being in community with me along the way.