Nice to meet you

My name is Inês. I am currently 21 years old, living in Lisbon, Portugal.

Still studying - taking a degree in performing arts. I aim to be a playwright, a theater producer, maybe a lyricist, maybe a collumn writer too and god knows what more. Basically I want to work in the artistic and literary fields in however many ways I find I might have a certain drive for.

Breathing on wheels is my third blog. I currently hold two more platforms, both in Portuguese: My site Inês Marto where I post creative writing and poetry quite often (I have also recently published my first book Combustão, a selection of texts I published for the last 7 years)  ; and Teatral-Mente Falando which is about theater, actors and plays being made currently in Portugal.

Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to explain the title. Here goes nothing then:

I was born on the 3rd of September, 1995. 3 months  premature (26 weeks of gestation) , with a twin brother. Rumour has it we didn't even have fully formed lungs back then. Which ended up in me having cerebral palsy, spastic dyplegia to be more specific, as a life-long companion.

Further on I am sure there will be more details about this, but long story short it affects my moving ability. With surgeries here and there and many years of therapies, I can manage pretty well to do the most that I want to - but we will also go deeper into that soon.

The thing is I have some... let's say unusual views about life and handicaps and recoveries and all that jazz.  I always said that I wouldn't do this. That I wouldn't speak up about the wheelchair. That I wouldn't even make space for it in my business card (yeah, it's a metaphor, I'm not that much of a serious person to have one of those - yet). It is precisely why I finally brought myself to do this - mhmm, I'm controverse as hell and if you plan on staying I'd advise you to get used to that - but no, this isn't going against that principle of mine - yes, I'll admit that I am confusing too - like I said, it is precisely why I did this.

The aim of Breathing on wheels is to show that there is so much more to us than actually merely breathing while on a wheelchair - hence I said on, not in, that's right - quoting Aaron Wheelz Fotheringham (if you dont't know who he is, do yourself a favour and meet one of the most epic people I have been lucky to find out about) “When someone says ‘You’re in a wheelchair,’ it’s like saying that I’m confined to my chair, I’m ‘on’ my wheelchair; I ride it like a skater ‘on’ a skateboard.”
I aim to write freely in here. Maybe actually become a social person even - the sky is the limit, right? - time (and feedback) will tell. Wether it is related to wheelchair life or not. Maybe by doing so I can show how it is not such big of a deal, riding wheels. Sometimes. Sometimes it is a pain in the ass (quite literally too, I may add). But that is exactly my point. Sometimes the spotlight is on it. Other times you barely notice it. Some days I feel it as an extension (quite a rusty one, glad I'm gonna get a new one pretty soon) of myself, and other times there comes the "why me?" again, and I wonder how it would be if there were no wheels needed.
I'm gonna be raw here. I'm gonna be a person here, not a motivational coach. Maybe to the extent that I might regret this someday, who knows. The first step has been taken. Hang on close by and I'm gonna open the window bit by bit to my twisted mind.