They would complain every day that their legs were tired and I would simply reply, “AT LEAST YOU CAN FEEL YOUR LEGS. They would take turns pushing up those mountains they call streets. First tip, those cobblestone roads and step San Francisco like streets are no joke. This process was hard, but my friends and I have this “we are just gonna figure it out when we get there” type of attitude! The glass is always half full! Positivity can be found in any situation! Whenever we came to an obstacle regarding my wheelchair, we would just figure it out! We were just happy to be four black 26-year-old Memphians with the funds and opportunity to go to Rome, Italy and experience things most people from where we are from will never see!! Go to Rome they said… It’ll be fun they said…THEY WERE RIGHT!ġ. They had to carry me up and down these stairs every time we left or entered the hotel. So my friends decided that was too much and just carried me and my chair up the stairs. The entire process would take like 15 minutes… this is virtually impossible to do after leaving the nightclub at 3 AM on 2 for 1 Long Island Iced Tea night??. So, I would have to transfer over to the rail death trap seat, someone would have to carry my chair up the stairs, then once at the top I would have to transfer out of it back into my chair. The Vatican, my hotel, several restaurants, all had these weird lift things … Two things wrong with this idea… since I am paralyzed, I am always in my chair. Kind of like those chairs old people put in their house when they can’t walk upstairs anymore. My disability presented a few issues while we were there! For example, Rome’s definition of “wheelchair accessible” is having stairs with some old lift like contraption attached that would move up the rail. But being black AND being in a wheelchair, you would have thought Julius Caesar himself came back from the dead the way they were staring at me!! My friends and I would laugh and joke around and say “we should stare back and see who looks away first” lol I got 2 phones *In Kevin Gates voice*” lol. People randomly walking up to us in restaurants and saying random rap lyrics…. “My friend My friend… I got 2 phones. It was like 85 degrees and it was only 9am!! But nonetheless we head to the hotel and let the adventures begin!īeing black in a European country was an adventure within itself. But now it’s time for my first stamp! Excited and wide-eyed I rolled off the plane, (hashtag wheelchair life lol), my friends and I grabbed our luggage, I go outside, take a deep breath and my first words on European soil… “IT’S HOT EH HELL”??.
Go to Rome they said… It’ll be fun they said… My first “real” international trip.