Ema's Insights

Blog #2 - Paralympic     Originally, when I first thought of the word Paralympic, I immediately thought of the word paraplegic. A paraplegic is someone who has little or no ability to move the lower half of their body. At first, I thought that the Paralympics were for people who had paraplegia and that was the only way that you would qualify to be able to compete in them. I never gave the word or its meaning much thought either because if it doesn't affect me personally, why squander over it. After looking at videos, reading articles, and conducting a little bit of my own research I realized that I was missing the entire meaning of why 'Para" is in the word. I didn't realize the history of the games and how deep the information actually goes when discussing the Paralympic movement.     With a simple Google search, I learned that the word paralympic contains the Greek preposition 'para', which means beside or alongside . The word Paralympics is used bec...

      Throughout my entire life, I have been around people with all kinds of disabilities. I have seen people in wheelchairs, people with missing limbs, and Down Syndrome. Growing up I had more experience being around Autistic people though because I have a lot of family members who have it. Some of my family members have high-functioning autism and you would barely even be able to tell that they have it. I also have family members whose autism affects their everyday life and they need help to be able to navigate.      My little cousin, Connor, I have been around since he was brought into this world and I was able to understand his disability so well because I was almost ten years older than him. It's amazing how over the years I have noticed the little independent man he has become. He has gone to endless amounts of speech, occupational, and physical therapy over the years, but they have greatly helped with his independence. When he was little he would onl...

 Hello Everyone, My name is Ema Finegan and I am a Senior this semester. I just had a baby in September and took the Fall semester off, but I am back and ready to finish strong. Although my life has been very busy while caring for a newborn, I enjoy things like music, spending time with family, and binge-watching Netflix series. I look forward to a great semester with all of you! :)