6 People That Have Inspired Me to Live my “Different” Life to the Fullest

I decided to take a page from a previous post of Jill’s today and tell you about sixpeople who have inspired me when it comes to my difference. These people are in no particular order.

1) Jill Clark; Annie and Steve Hopkins-These people have never met each other but they really inspire me in similar ways. They have all taken their difference, learned to love and embrace it, and their goal in life is to encourage others to do the same. Steve and Annie have already started on this adventure with 3E Love. Please go read their story, start loving life, and to any Ontario people reading this, tell Steve to come to a conference in Toronto so that we can go say hi. Seriously.

Jill has been on this journey for a few years as well. She hangs out with people with differences whenever possible, and she always wants to make sure we are having as much fun as we possibly can in spite of – or maybe because of – our differences. I cannot wait to see where she takes BB Squared, I truly believe it could be anywhere.

2) SJ-I’m not revealing this person’s identity, because I didn’t get a chance to ask her if she wanted to be on the blog today, but she needs to be here. Why? Because she has a physical difference which makes it necessary to write the novel she is working on using only her voice. Some days her voice recognition software acts up, some days she can write because her voice is gone or there are too many people in her house, but she never quits. I asked her one day what percentage of the time she enjoyed writing her manuscript and she said something like 95%. I was so proud; that means she enjoyed working her butt off 95% of the time. Who isn’t inspired by that?

3) KF-Another mystery person who didn’t give me permission to use him on the blog today. KF also has a physical difference, but he has not let that stop him from working in Washington DC and Chicago, working on his law degree, or living independently in several different cities. He knows what he wants and takes no prisoners to get there. I cannot say enough about how much of an advocate he is on his own behalf as well as others.

4)  Dana-Dana is someone I have known since I was little, and there really have been no end to the lessons she has taught me about loving life and my difference. But most recently she has showed me by example the importance of trusting that everything is going to work out, doing our part to make that happen, and not being concerned about the rest. This is a lesson I am still trying to learn – and probably she is too – but I do believe it will serve me well in life if I can master it. Some day soon I am going to ask Dana to guest post for BB Squared and I cannot wait to introduce our readers to her.***

I hope that one day others will be able to say that BB Squared inspired them to love their difference and go after their dreams, just as these people have done for me. Also, I can already feel a follow-up post to this one forming in my head, so stay tuned!

***I would love if all the people on this list would guest post for us someday.