Pride is a reasonable or valid self-respect of a person. This kind of emotion usually have two extremes: It is either you are too proud of yourself or the other is you do not have any pride for yourself as a person.
Having too much pride is harmful because you will never accept any corrections or advise from someone even if you are doing something wrong already.
On the other hand, lack of pride in oneself cannot also be beneficial to a person because he will not have any confidence in everything that they do.
Therefore, only a certain measure of pride is what a person needs. It is up to the degree of pride wherein you just have enough to gain self-confidence and self-respect that can help you with life.
Being proud of oneself is not bad. In fact, we needed it so that we can have dignity and honor in our lives. Sadly, most PWDs (Person with Disabilities) are not proud of themselves because of their conditions.
That’s why in today’s story, we will look at how can a PWD become proud of who she is, the conditions that she has, and what is her life right now.
Let’s Get Started
Our “Person With Dignity” Story series is almost over. Right now, we are at our sixth story that is also full of inspiration and motivation from a person with dignity and just disability.
Like our previous stories, we have interviewed someone who has a beautiful story to share for this article. The person that we have talked to for this is Mona Visperas. She is already 38 years old and happily living with her kids.
Mona is currently working for a non-governmental organization (NGO) as a contractual technical reviewer. She is also a professional volunteer who loves to participate and serve in various events that helps different communities.
In her past time, she loves to read different books. Aside from that, she also used to travel a lot in different places. However, traveling is not an option for her today because it’s hard to do it with little kids.
She said that when they are all grown up, maybe that’s the time she will return to her hobby of travelling and bring them along. Mona is diagnosed with a psychosocial disability. She has anxiety, depression, and an adult ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder).
Despite of that, she is convinced on herself that her disability is not a hindrance rather it’s a gift from God that she considers sometimes as her superpower.
Like our previous PWD stories, we also give some questions to Mona. For the first question, we asked her opinion on the topic of dignity and why it is important for us PWDs.
According to Mona and her quick research about it, having dignity is living in the state of honor or respect. She also added that a person of dignity has an unbending principle, and it is composed of a sense of pride in oneself and self-respect.
This is an incredible insight of dignity from a person who have different conditions. Mona really believes that having disability must not hinder anyone to have pride and dignity for themselves. It is like she is saying to all of us that we should be proud of who we are.
Moreover, Mona said that having a disability should not make us feel less of a person, at the end of the day, a person is more than the sum of his human parts because that is only physical. She also gave an amazing example on how our disability can make us stronger.
Sometimes our disability can cause some part of us to be stronger. Just like how the visually impaired people like the blind can gain super hearing ability. Even though we have some impairments in our bodies, we still have other amazing gifts and abilities that God has given us.
After hearing all those beautiful insights from Mona, we asked her if she has some achievements that she would like to share in this story. She said that life is an ongoing process, and she cannot just pick one achievement in her life.
However, if being a mother of four children is considered an achievement, maybe that would be her greatest achievement in her life. She feels proud to be able to raise her kids despite of conditions and being a solo parent. That’s why her children call her as the greatest mother of all time.
Mona is doing her best and will continue to do so in setting a good example to her children by working and serving to the community. As for the last question for this story, we asked her about her dream and hope for the future.
She said that her ultimate dream is to have a progressive society for the community and for her children. To be able to provide more than the basic needs of her kids is also part of her dreams. She wanted her children to live in a community wherein there is peace and harmony.
Moreover, she also wants a community for her children that are able to afford and meet the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Mona wanted everyone especially her kids to live happily and healthy.
Before we ended our interview with Mona, she shared an amazing yet challenging insight for her fellow PWDs. She said that in life, quitters never win, and winners never quit. Therefore, even there are sufferings and problems in life, do not lose hope and just give up.
Be proud of yourself and believe in all your God-given abilities. In God’s perfect timing, you will get through it and become a better and stronger person. Mona even gave a bible verse that we can get inspiration.
3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
Romans 5:3-5, New International Version
Story Takeaways
The most evident lesson that we can learn from this story is to be proud of who you are. Regardless of our situations in life, we can still be proud of what we are capable of.
But this sense of pride that we are talking about here is the pride to have self-respect and self-confidence. When you have that kind of pride, you will be able to now accept your situation and do something about it by using your own special abilities.
Just like what we learned from our first PWD story, do not stop believing in yourself and your abilities. Despite of your conditions and circumstances, God will not leave you nor forsake you. God can use your abilities to get through all of those problems.
Whether you are PWD or not, we want you to know that God loves you so much and He is proud of who you are. Therefore, better live your life with pride, hope, faith, and dignity.
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