Ethan’s Story: Living with Achondroplasia — Transcript

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1. 0:24I'm Ethan Osborne. I'm 23, live in a
2. 0:29no-name city called Mayflower, Arkansas,
3. 0:32and this is who I am.
4. 0:36A controplasia has affected me since
5. 0:39birth with ER visits when I was really,
6. 0:42really young. I was on a breathing
7. 0:44machine up to a couple years old.
8. 0:50There's certain ways you got to do
9. 0:52things differently than a normal height
10. 0:54person.
11. 0:56on a dayto-day stool would be the
12. 0:58biggest thing that helps me. If I didn't
13. 1:00have a stool, I wouldn't be able to turn
14. 1:02certain lights on.
15. 1:05I wouldn't be able to do the dishes,
16. 1:07reach the pantry.
17. 1:11I use a stick to take shorts off, take
18. 1:14pants off, go into the bathroom, the
19. 1:16shower. I live with my mom's, but I want
20. 1:20to try to be as independent as I can.
21. 1:23you're held back a lot of the time
22. 1:25because of the health issues and I don't
23. 1:28know, I just try to stay positive about
24. 1:30it.
25. 1:33I use pedal extensions for my car cuz I
26. 1:36wouldn't be able to drive without them.
27. 1:38They've helped me be independent. I want
28. 1:41to be able to drive my own self to my
29. 1:43doctor's appointments or wherever I'm
30. 1:45going.
31. 1:48I always tell people that stare at me
32. 1:49out in public, I'm exactly the same as
33. 1:52them.
34. 1:56It's actually more adults that have said
35. 1:59stuff than kids.
36. 2:01Past year, we were at pizza place out
37. 2:04here. There was a man and his wife. They
38. 2:07brought out their phones and taken
39. 2:08videos of me and
40. 2:12they always bring out their camera.
41. 2:17I never went back to school after 10th
42. 2:19grade cuz it was about every 6 to 12
43. 2:22months I was having another back
44. 2:23surgery.
45. 2:25I've had a total now eight.
46. 2:28I was living at a 9 to 10 pain level
47. 2:31constantly. Nothing helped.
48. 2:34But after the fourth or fifth one,
49. 2:36thankfully,
50. 2:39I've never felt better in probably 10
51. 2:41years.
52. 2:44I want to be independent.
53. 2:47My dream job would really be uh like
54. 2:50pilot or digital forensics investigator
55. 2:53or to help people with my condition.
56. 3:00As long as I put my mind to it, I could
57. 3:03do the same thing as anybody else in the
58. 3:05world. I don't care who it is.
59. 3:10I just want people to think of me like
60. 3:12of who I am
61. 3:17and not of just a little person. I want
62. 3:19people to think of me as as me.